Winner! Gagnon!

Winger’s second hat trick this season lifts Dukes’ winning streak to seven games

Natural goal scorers seem to see the game differently. They tend to perceive openings, opportunities before they occur. Others have described the phenomenon as the ability to slow down time to enable the senses to put order to the chaos—to make the breathtaking play no one else could see coming. This innate advantage seems, at times, unfair. It is more than the sum of hard work, skill, and perseverance. More than confidence, more than determination. Natural scorers possess magic. An ability that is unteachable. Unknowable. Mercurial.

Jake Gagnon scored his second hat trick in as many weeks in Sunday’s win over Lindsay.

There are few clues in Jake Gagnon’s hockey career prior to joining the Wellington Dukes in the off-season to suggest he would be lighting up the OJHL in scoring this season. Gagnon was more of a point-getter, a playmaker, in his three years at Millbrook, a preparatory school a couple of hours north of New York City on the border with Connecticut. He still holds the record for most points and assists there.

This year, however, with the Dukes he has become a natural goal scorer. With another hat trick on Sunday, Gagnon leads the league in goals (21) and sits third overall in terms of points. It isn’t just the number; it is the way he scores them. Knowing that the five-hole will open up in his third goal on Sunday or knowing Jacob Vreugdenhil would find him with a pass on the far side of the net on Friday.

There is a consistency to Gagnon’s productivity that is peculiar for natural goal scorers. They tend to be streaky players, prone to lapses—to disappear for games at a time. Not so with Gagnon. He has managed a point in all but four games he has played in a Dukes uniform—and none of those were back to back.

Further, Gagnon rarely puts his team at a disadvantage. The Pointe-Claire native is one the least-penalized players among the league’s scoring leaders with just eight penalty minutes in 21 games.

The blossoming of a natural goal scorer is one of the reasons the Dukes lead the East Division and sit behind only the Toronto Patriots in pursuit of the overall league lead.

DUKES 5- COBOURG 2
Cobourg had begun to change up the team roster a few days before arriving in Wellington on Friday night. But after a 5-2 loss against the Dukes on Friday, two more were gone. The Cougars have, since the middle of last month, shipped five forwards out of town, while bringing in a couple of replacements. One learns not to rest easy when Jerome Dupont’s teams are losing. (Cobourg played Monday with just 19 skaters in their lineup, losing to 5-4 to Collingwood after spotting the Colts a fivegoal lead.)

On Friday night, Matt Dunsmoor was spectacular in the Dukes net, making one astonishing save after another. That is until Brandon Brazeau took the first of three, illadvised penalties. Cobourg’s captain Matt Lowry scored on the power play.

But then it was the Dukes’ turn on the power play. Wellington moved the puck well, weaving it around the perimeter, cross-ice, and back. Some chances. But it wasn’t until the penalty expired that the puck was bouncing around the blue paint. Frank Vitucci was in the right place, right moment to tie the game.

Early in the second period, the Dukes were pressing in the Cobourg zone. Brett Humberstone’s hard wrister was intentionally wide. The puck bounced sharply to Ryan Smith parked on the far side of the goalmouth. Smith deftly deflected the puck straight up. Top corner. Short side. Pretty goal.

But Cobourg’s newly acquired Jacob Campbell tied the game again a couple of moments after Smith’s goal. But it was no time at all before Ben Evans set up shop behind the Cobourg net. The crafty forward was poised to punish the bold defender willing to try and flush him. So it was no surprise that when the rush came, Evans slid the puck to Jacob Vreugdenhil in the near face-off dot. Alone, Vreugdenhil might have had a good scoring chance. Instead, he spotted Jake Gagnon at the opposite goalmouth. Brilliant pass. One timer by Gagnon and the Dukes restored the one goal lead.

Dylan Massie hunts for the rebound on Friday as the Dukes downed the Cobourg Cougars 5-2. On Sunday, Massie earned six assists helping the Dukes to a 9-2 win over Lindsay.

Then the backbreaker. Twenty-six penalty minutes were handed out in the second period. A combination of mounting frustration emanating from the Cobourg bench and the referee’s flailing attempt to keep the game from unravelling.

So it was that Noah Massie won the puck in a battle on the wall while killing a penalty that he saw Frank Vitucci exit the penalty box and head to the Cobourg blueline. A perfect stretch pass to Vitucci’s stick. Breakaway. Shift. Dangle. Goal.

Plenty more penalties in the third with both Brazeau and Evans ejected and suspended (Brazeau for a game, Evans for a pair).

The Dukes went into the period killing a man-disadvantage. Cobourg never got settled after the face-off. Daniel Panetta busted up a pass in the neutral zone. He skated to the net with one defender back, and linemate Dawson Ellis streaking up the gut to help out. A nifty pass around the Cobourg player onto Ellis’s stick. Easy goal. If the outcome wasn’t settled with Vitucci’s goal, it was by Ellis’s.

DUKES 9 – LINDSAY 2
Late last month the Dukes escaped Lindsay with a 2-1 win on a Dawson Ellis goal with just a few seconds remaining in regulation time. When they met on Sunday, the Dukes were motivated to extinguish that memory.

By the end of the first period Wellington had mounted a 3-0 lead, though the shots were fairly even. That was enough for Lindsay netminder Dean Bucholz, replaced by Ben Edwards. It didn’t get better for the Muskies. Two more (Smith and Barrett Joynt) in the second. Early in the third Lindsay scored. Perhaps they would make a game of this yet. Nope. Four more unanswered goals. And another late tally by Lindsay made it 9-2.

Dylan Massie had a whale of a game assisting on six of the Dukes goals. Gagnon earned his second hat trick this season. Quinn Hanna had a goal and three assists. Jacob Breckles earned a pair of assists on his return to the Dukes lineup, after serving a two-game suspension.

UP NEXT: MISSISSAUGA AND TRENTON

Fresh off a 7-3 thumping at home by the Dukes, the Mississauga Chargers visit Wellington on Friday. It was just a week and a half ago that Jake Gagnon notched his first hat trick of the season in Mississauga. They will take inspiration from the fact that Wellington was up 4- 0 in the game, when the Mississauga charged back with three unanswered goals. The Dukes got back to business and won the game handily—but learned a valuable lesson: don’t take ease up until the final buzzer sounds.

On Sunday, the Dukes return to Trenton, where a couple of weeks ago they shut out the Golden Hawks 4- 0 in a rough and tumble game. Trenton has won four straight since then and will be looking to reset the table on Sunday.

The Golden Hawks remained tied in points with the Dukes atop the East Division, though the Dukes have three games in hand.