Going strong

Nine of ten points since New Year

The Dukes deserved a better fate on Sunday. Although they never had the lead in the game, they were much faster. They controlled the play, won the foot races and fired more shots on net. So when Elijah Gonsalves scored from an inspired feed from Tyson Gilmour to tie the game in the third, it appeared the Dukes might just pull out a victory—their fifth straight in 2019.

This sense was magnified when the game went into overtime. Again the Dukes controlled the play with superior speed. Suddenly Gonsalves had the puck in the low slot. All alone. But rather than shoot, the crafty Dukes forward slid the puck sideways. To the winger headed to the crease. It was a brilliant play—but the Buffalo defenceman had just enough time to put his stick in the play. A glorious scoring opportunity evaporated.

It was a great way to introduce himself to the OJHL. Jacob Thousand (23) was forechecking deep in the Whitby zone in the second period. Relentless. Suddenly he had the puck. Stolen from the defenceman at the edge of the Fury netminder’s crease. But rather than jam it through the netminder, Thousand patiently skated around the prone goalie and fired the puck into the open side. Brilliant. The Dukes won 4-1.

Buffalo worked the puck into the Dukes zone. A shot from the face-off dot. It hit a stick and fluttered past Logan Bateman, spoiling his winning streak in Wellington’s net.

In the process the Dukes demonstrated that speed, skill and tenacity will overcome size and experience.

Buffalo has a good team—and when they managed to set up in the Dukes zone, they moved the puck well. Three times they found ways to beat Bateman. But they couldn’t keep up with Wellington on the open ice. They couldn’t manage the Dukes’ forechecking tenacity in the neutral zone. And while they pounded Gonzales, Dawson Ellis and others patrolling the dark ice around the Junior Sabre’s netminder, they couldn’t tame the Dukes’ snipers.

And so it was that the Dukes dropped their first game of 2019. Their only loss of the new year.

Last week, too, the Dukes traded Madoka Suzuki to Kemptville of the CCHL for Jacob Thousand. While the crafty forward doesn’t have the wheels Suzuki has, he knows how to score goals and create offence. In 41 games with Kemptville this season, Thousand had 21 points, including 15 goals.

He made a good first impression in Wellington on Friday—first by proactively introducing himself on Main Street in the village, and then potting a goal—unassisted—on Friday, as the Dukes tamed the Whitby Fury 4-1. He set up Keenan Eddy for the sixth goal in the Dukes’ win over Georgetown on Saturday.

The 20-year-old hails from the suburbs of Madison, Wisconsin and is set to skate with the oddly branded Colby College Mules, an NCAA D3 program in Maine, this fall.

DUKES 4 – WHITBY 1
The Fury brought a tough and physical game back to Wellington on Friday. The Dukes proved, once again, they possess the talent and tools— when they choose to use them—to break teams that rely on these attributes to win games.

Early in the first the Dukes pressed the Fury deep into their zone. Three good scoring chances, before Andrew Rinaldi settled the puck and buried the shot. The Dukes led 1-0. Wellington fans were on their feet.

Late in the period, Rinaldi won another battle for the puck in the Dukes zone, hit Frank Vitucci at the blueline as the winger was streaking westward. Vitucci found daylight between Whitby’s flatfooted defenders and blazed to the net unencumbered. He lifted the backhand shot nearly vertical, into the far corner. Sick.

Thousand scored on the power play in the second. Rinaldi potted his second goal— third point of the night—midway through the second.

Ben Woodhouse was called for interference in the third. A hard call to swallow after all the abuse the feisty forward endures. But it was the talking that earned him a two-game suspension. His fourth of the season.

The Fury tallied on the power play—spoiling Bateman’s shutout.

The game was marred by an ugly incident late in the third period. As humiliated teams tend to do, the Fury became increasingly vicious in their attacks. The game was out of reach, so they sought to inflict pain.

Inevitably—not really, if the referees had managed the game better—two sets of players squared off to showcase their slugging ability for the viewers of dropyourgloves.com. The Dukes Brett Humberstone was landing as many blows as his Fury opponent. But then the helmets were off. And then Humberstone collected the full effect of a left blow and crumpled to the ice, as the Fury pugilist crowed to the Wellington fans. Humberstone had to be assisted off the ice. An unsettling and unnecessary sight.

The sad bit is that it was all too predictable— a wily, fast team getting under the skin of a slow and physical squad. The referees had to have seen this coming. Yet it was allowed to spiral away from hockey to a gladiatorial spectacle.

DUKES 6 – GEORGETOWN 4
On Saturday the Dukes visited Georgetown for the second of two matches this season. The Dukes fell behind on a power play goal early in the first. But the Dukes drew back even on Tyson Gilmour’s shot from deep in the Raiders’ corner. The puck managed to slip through the netminder’s attempt to smother it. Before the period was done, Gilmour scored again from a slick backhand feed from Gonsalves. A power play goal.

Georgetown tied the score midway through the second, after the puck bounced around the net onto the winger’s stick.

Fearless Dukes assistant captain Dawson Ellis (21) gains the inside edge on a much larger Whitby forward, Ryan Smith. Over and over again, the Dukes have shown that speed, skill and tenacity succeed over size.

A few minutes later the Raiders were on the power play, both teams were battling hard along the wall deep in the Dukes zone. It was Dukes defender Ben Addison who won the skirmish, releasing Keenan Eddy up the wing. Daniel Panetta with him up the middle. One man back. Pass to Panetta. His wrister far corner restored the Dukes lead. Short-handed.

Late in the second, Zachary Uens’ hard shot from the point, produced a rebound, one which Eddy was poised to bury.

But the Raiders came out hard in the third. A power play goal. Then a slow wrister from the point, through traffic fooled Bateman. Suddenly the game was tied again. This is the kind of game that would have slipped away from the Dukes earlier this year. But not this time.

Rinaldi found another gear. Working like a horse deep in the Georgetown end, he emerged clean with the puck. Skating behind the netminder, he slid a pass through the crease. It was an easy tap-in for Vitucci.

And with the Raiders pressing in the final minute, and the net empty, Vitucci broke up a pass in the Dukes zone, releasing Rinaldi up the wing with a lone defender. Rinaldi drew the defenceman into the corner before centring the pass. Vitucci had another easy task of burying the puck.

UP NEXT: TRENTON
After a busy start to the year, the Dukes have just a single game over the next week. On Friday they welcome Trenton back to Wellington. The Dukes have bested the Golden Hawks in three previous matches this season—finishing to a 3-3 draw in the other.

Trenton is currently in second place in the East Division with four wins in their last five games. A win for the Dukes on Friday, however, would draw them within two points of the Golden Hawks, and five points from the Cougars. It is that close in the East.

Trenton and Wellington always always make a great game, draw a big crowd and there is much on the line.