Up and down

Dukes entertain fans with unpreseason-like intensity

Another mixed weekend for the Wellington Dukes. On Friday the Carleton Place Canadians and hometown Dukes served up an energetic and feisty offering. The pace was fast, the checking was tight and the intensity was cranked up to 11.

The visiting Canadians were visibly older and bigger. Despite an obvious size advantage, they were quick too. At least early on. They charged up and down the ice like Vikings rampaging through an unfortified village. The Canadians believed they would overwhelm the Dukes and quell any resistance. And they might have done, in the first 20 minutes. Except for Matt Dunsmoor. This exceptional netminder is back for his second tour in the Wellington net.

For every offensive attack, Dunsmoor was equal. Every opening was sealed. Hatches were battened down. After a scoreless first period, the visiting Canadians began to ease the pace. Suddenly Wellington was manufacturing good scoring chances. But it wasn’t until late in the second frame that Dukes forward Mason Reeves slid a pass, through traffic, to Hayden Webster slicing cross-ice just above the crease. Webster got two whacks at the puck in close. The second bounced over the goaltender and into the net.

Increasingly the Dukes found more room to move. Early in the third Webster found some ice on the right wing. A shooting lane appeared. Webster found the top corner, near side. Then the Dukes’ Owin Hendsbee forced a turnover at the Carleton Place blueline. A tip ahead. Corbin Roach snapped the puck. In perhaps three seconds, the Dukes had converted the turnover into a goal.

In the dying minutes, the Canadians dialled up the intensity once more, seemingly startled to discover they were going to lose this game. A Dukes penalty. Carleton Place pulled their netminder. Even Dunsmoor couldn’t withstand the ensuing assault.

But that is how the game ended—a 3-1 Wellington victory.

It was a different story in Carleton Place on Sunday. The Dukes scored twice in the early going—from Corbin Roach and Emmet Pierce. But then the wheels fell off for the visiting squad. The Canadians scored five unanswered goals before they went to their dressing rooms for the first intermission with a 6-2 lead. Four more in the second. And two more to make it an even dozen in the third.

The Dukes managed to notch a few in this wild affair—with goals from Webster, Will Mitchell and Jacob Vreugdenhil. There was a hard lesson in this game for the Dukes—don’t find yourselves in a wild shootout.

Hayden Webster has demonstrated skill around the net in the early going notching three goals in two games on the weekend against Carleton Place.

The Dukes are back at home on Friday to round out their exhibition schedule. They will face the Cobourg Cougars.