Uneven

Dukes’ season full of twists and turns

The Dukes can’t seem to get off the roller coaster. Up and down all season long, the Wellington squad has struggled to find consistency. Injuries played a part. But only a part.

At the pace the game is played, it is tough to teach intensity for 60 minutes, but other teams manage to find it. The Dukes have four games remaining, all to be played this week, before the Christmas break. We’ll see if this team can get off the ride.

HALIBURTON 5 – WELLINGTON 1
This was a close game, closer than the final score suggests. It was also an important midseason test. Wellington has languished in the middle of the East Conference since a dreadful October, when they won just one of 12 games. But bolstered on the back end, the Dukes were managing to right the ship in November. Could they keep it up against, arguably, the OJHL’s best goalie and squad a few notches ahead in the standings?

For most of this game, it seemed they might. Through the first period, the Huskies and the Dukes battled fiercely. Both creating scoring chances. The Dukes rang the post a couple of times. Yet the game was knotted at zero going into the second period.

But penalties.
Referees, like all humans, have tendencies—ways they think about their role. The two folks regulating the game in Wellington were intent on penalizing the retaliation. When Sacha Trudel took a hard elbow to the head in the corner? The whistle was quiet. When the Dukes’ captain made a point of levelling the same player? Penalty. It seemed unfair. Felt unfair.

The seeming injustice of it all tended to perpetuate the behaviour. A cycle formed. It became the game.

Haliburton’s first goal was the result of a giveaway. The Huskies forward snatched the puck and found a lane through traffic. Goal. It was, effectively, the only goal Haliburton scored in which it didn’t have the manadvantage.

By the end of the second, the Huskies had a straight-up power play goal, and a second goal with the Dukes player just getting back on the ice after serving his penalty.

Evan Erwin scored a pretty goal in the final frame from Christian Armstrong and Landon Marleau. Wellington was still in this game.

But more Dukes penalties. Two more Haliburton power play goals. And that was it.

WELLINGTON 6 – AURORA 5 OT2
Sunday’s match was a wee microcosm of the Dukes’ season so far. Wellington jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first, on goals from Sacha Trudel and a pair from Landon Marleau. The lone Tigers’ goals in the first frame came with the Dukes shorthanded with a man in the penalty box.

Then, another penalty early in the second. Another goal. A few moments later, Aurora tied the game. It was 3-3 going into the third.

Liam Campbell scored for the good guys 78 seconds into the period. Okay. Breathe a sigh of relief? Nope. Another Tiger’s goal. Then another. Sudden panic. The Dukes’ top line cranked up the intensity late in the period, and Trudel beat the Aurora netminder to force overtime.

Will Mitchell scored the winner in the second overtime period, snatching a win from a game that ought not to have been this close.

UP NEXT: NORTH YORK, ST. MICHAEL’ S , NEWMARKET AND COBOURG
The Rangers are a weak squad this season winning just two games in 32 starts—though one of their wins came at the expense of the Dukes. The Rangers only other match against Wellington this season was also much too close, with the Dukes outlasting North York to win 6-5.

The Rangers have allowed a league-leading 166 goals in 32 games, an average of 5 goals per game. It is hard to win hockey games this way.

The Dukes must still take care of business. North York beat St. Mike’s late last month—scoring seven goals. This game will have been played on Tuesday night, after our deadline.

On Thursday, the Dukes travel to Toronto to face St. Mikes. The Buzzers, like the Dukes, are stuck in the middle of the East, with similar records. But St. Mikes edged past Wellington in an earlier meeting in October. And the Buzzers are currently on a three-game winning streak.

It will be a key East Conference contest. On Friday, Newmarket comes to Wellington. The Hurricanes are currently third in the East and have beaten the Dukes on two previous matches this season. But Newmarket has lost its last two games. Wellington fans are likely to be out in force on Friday night looking for an upset.

In the Dukes’ final game of 2025, the team will visit the remnants of the Cobourg Cougars. The once-mighty Cobourg squad has been wracked by organizational issues this season. The result has produced a carousel of incoming and outgoing players.

The Cougars haven’t won a game since November 7. Nevertheless, the final game before Christmas tends to produce some inexplicable outcomes.