Reaching deep

Dukes grinding through last month of the regular season

It’s a long season. Fifty-six games. By early February, the bulk (45) of the games have been played, and the table is mostly set. There are still 11 games remaining on the Wellington Dukes’ schedule. They are in fourth spot in the East Conference. They might get to third place—beyond that would be a stretch.

The Dukes have qualified for the playoffs. The games become a bit of a grind. Lesser teams are motivated to improve their lot, in order to qualify for the top spot. Meanwhile, Wellington’s intensity is dialled back a smidge. We are talking about small increments here. But it matters.

Forwards such as Kyle Kavc still storm through every shift. Colin Smith finishes every check. Cory Jewitt still emerges from the corner scrums with the puck on his stick. Still, the games in February feel a bit like my high school career—just enough to get by.

DUKES 4 – LINDSAY 3 So it was a fair bit of slogging in the early going of Sunday’s game—a matinee affair, more a naptime than a cage match in the Wellington coliseum. (We will come back to the lack of Friday night home games in a bit.) Big pieces were missing: Logan Sitlani and Alex Hendry on defence. Forwards Jared McNeil and Zander Latrielle. Dario Cantini also missed Sunday’s game after leaving Thursday’s game in Stouffville.

Midway through Sunday’s game, the Dukes were up a pair of goals—fuelled by a slick 5- on-3 power play goal in the first period, finished by Jewitt on a brilliant feed from Ryan Castle. Midway through the second, Sacha Trudel mounted his horse, creating two scoring chances and finishing on the second.

But moments later, the Dukes’ structure fell apart. It was long enough for Lindsay’s Ryland Cunningham to gain a free lane to the net. Jacob Brown had no chance.

Not to be undone, the Dukes’ Ryan Schaap broke free down the left wing moments later after blocking a shot at the blueline. The veteran sniper rarely misses with a clean shot. And he didn’t this time. 3-1 Dukes.

That should have been the game. Moments later, Quinn McNamara was in the penalty box for the third time in the game. The Muskies Cunningham scored again, narrowing the Dukes’ lead to a goal.

Lindsay came out of the second intermission buzzing. The Muskies were rewarded with a goal—tying the game. While the shots had been close through the game, the Dukes created the best chances. But here they were, in a tie game they should have been leading comfortably.

It was the wily agitator, Sacha Trudel, who would finally sort this game. With the time clock draining, Trudel moved through the Muskies zone, weaving, dodging and creating lanes. Shot on net. The puck bounced up off the netminder’s pad. Ben Vreugdenhil was planted in the blue paint, well positioned to swat the puck behind the Lindsay goalie.

“It wasn’t pretty,” said one long-time Dukes fan. “But we’ll take it.”

Trudel scored three points in the game. Kyle Kavc won the Energizer Bunny award and was strangely overlooked in the game’s threestar selection.

DUKES 6 – STOUFFVILLE 7 2OT
It was a tough afternoon in Stouffville. The Dukes had defeated the Spirit in two of three previous outings this season—but in the most recent match in January, Stouffville shut out Wellington 5-0.

The Spirit are a better team than they were early in the season. But this was a wild game. Both teams exchanged goals in the first period. But the wheels fell off Wellington’s game in the second as Stouffville scored four goals in under eight minutes. After the third goal of this onslaught was given up, Jacob Brown was replaced in favour of Dario Cantini. Cold. Lacking a proper warm-up. Cantini pulled something and had to leave the game 90 seconds later.

With Brown back in the net, the Dukes mounted a brilliant comeback on goals from Jared McNeil, Ryan Schaap, Zennon Edwards, Kyle Kavc and Captain Cory Jewitt. By midway through the third, the Dukes had climbed out of a deep hole and held a one-goal lead.

It didn’t hold. With their net empty, Stouffville swarmed the Dukes’ zone. Riley Pope scored his third goal to tie the game at 6-6. In the second overtime, it was Pope who blessed the event with his fourth goal.

Afternoon games.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS?
Friday nights are Dukes’ games in Prince Edward County. At least, that’s how it used to be. The week was planned around the game on Friday night. Not so much lately.

The Dukes have played 22 home games as of Sunday. Only nine of those have been Friday night games—less than half. There have been Tuesday games, Wednesday and Thursday games. A Saturday afternoon home game is set for 1:30 on Feb. 22. A whack of Sunday games.

The Wellington Dukes are among the prestigious franchises in the OJHL—indeed, the country. That esteem ought to be reflected in a more favourable schedule in 2025-26—assuming ticket gate revenue is important to the team.

UP NEXT: HALIBURTON, COBOURG AND PICKERING
The Huskies will have come and gone by the time this newspaper reaches readers on Wednesday—and the outcome will be beyond our deadline. Haliburton had a six-point lead over the Dukes on Monday, sitting in third place in the East Conference. The Dukes won two of three prior meetings with the Huskies. But the team is on a bit of a roll, winning four of their last five games.

The Dukes head over to Cobourg for a Saturday afternoon game. It will be the first chance to square off against Zach Carrier, who has found a new game with the Cougars, amassing 10 points in 10 games. Cobourg has won three of its last five games.

Wellington hosts the Pickering Panthers for another matinee game on Sunday. The Panthers are fighting for a playoff spot. They defeated St. Mikes on Saturday. The Panthers will be looking for prey.