Back on track

Dukes defender Justin Doak (4) takes a celebration skate after burying a power play goal from Zach Mascard and Landon Marleau. It was Doak’s first goal of the campaign.

Wellington surviving bites from the injury bug—for now

STORY: JASON PARKS

Last week the Wellington Dukes stumbled, carefully regained their footing and then started striding strongly along their path towards the top of the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s East Conference.

The Dukes (3-1-1) suffered their first set back of the season Wednesday. Despite shooting out to an early 3-1 lead, Wellington surrendered a pair of goals in the third as the host Mississauga Chargers toppled the visiting Dukes 6-4.

On Friday, any redemption would need to come against the pesky Newmarket Hurricanes. Wellington was a much more game club inside the friendly confines of the Dukedome. The Canes eventually emerged with a 3-2 shootout win but considering how lousy sick bay is with Dukes, the regulation tie tasted eerily similar to a victory.

Finally, Wellington returned to their winning ways on Sunday night with a tidy effort in Pickering where the Dukes doubled up on the Panthers 4-2.

Wellington was in Milton last night after press time where they battled the undefeated Menace. It remained to be seen as of Tuesday afternoon if the Dukes would be rolling some regulars back into the lineup or would again require some call-up help.

Ty Mulder was pressed into service this weekend in place of big brother Cole who entered concussion protocol after a hit in Mississauga. Ty Mulder played his first junior game with Wellington Friday, made his Picton Pirates debut on Saturday in Frankford and was back in the Dukes lineup Sunday. Fellow AP callup Jaden Leach has yet to play a game for the U18 Quinte Red Devils this season, but already has a pair of OJHL games under his belt thanks to a spate of injuries to regular Wellington blueliners Galen Shea and Gavin Godick.

Up front, the Dukes are still missing Ethan Murray due to injury and Jacob Vellucci’s international transfer paperwork must be coming by Pony Express.

Goaltender Mason Raycroft’s transfer agreement, filed last month, is hopefully in the same saddle bag. In Raycroft’s stead, Wellington has tapped Quinte Red Devil and Kingston Frontenacs draftee Nathan Ferris to back up Dryden Riley. Riley has started all five games for Wellington thus far into the season.

“I can’t fault the team’s effort when we have a ton of injuries and that list seems to keep building,” Dukes bench boss Jacob Panette said after Friday’s affair with Newmarket. “There are some guys stepping up and carrying us forward in the moment and that’s the kind of adversity that builds character and makes us into the team we aspire to be.”

One constant in the Wellington lineup so far has been the play of Dryden Riley. Minus a couple of goals in Mississauga, he would have liked to have a second chance at, the Trenton native continues to be Wellington’s backbone early in the 2026-27 campaign. Among goaltenders that have played four or more games, Riley is top five in Goals Against Average and Save Percentage.

“Dryden is our rock and we have all the faith in the world in him. He never wavers back there,” Panetta added.

COMEBACK ON THE CATS
Chestnut Hill Developments Recreation Complex has been a house of horrors for the Dukes in recent years, including last season’s playoff sweep of Wellington by the Panthers. And things weren’t looking positive for the Dukes Sunday night as the Cats took a 2-0 lead to the dressing room after the opening stanza.

But Riley stopped the bleeding and made two dozen saves over the second and third frames. Wellington regrouped and scored four unanswered goals including a pair of power play tallies. Landon Marleau scored with the man advantage 1:16 to kick-start the Wellington offence. Oilver Coyle, who was plying his trade for the U18 Northumberland Nighthawks AA program two years ago, picked up his first junior hockey goal just over two minutes later, squaring the affair at 2-2.

Wellington’s first lead of the game came at 6:48 when Jayden Levesque spotted Ryland Harvey. The Madoc native blasted home his first as a Duke. Meanwhile, Levesque has injected instant offence into the Wellington lineup and has five helpers in his first three games this season.

Up 3-2 in the third, Wellington added some key insurance to their margin early on. Sammy Longo lit the lamp on the power play at 2:08, firing his third of the campaign past an overmatched Jacob Gibbons in the Pickering net.

SURVIVING THE HURRICANE
Newmarket coach David Demarinis has once again compiled a hardworking, downhill skating team with a lineup that loves to battle in the corners almost as much as they love getting that extra chirp in or added face wash at the end of a scrum.

Expect the Hurricanes to be one of those teams no one wants to play in the first round of the 2027 Buckland Cup playoffs.

Newmarket got off to a great start, opening the scoring at 1:41 when Georgi Garimov used a Duke defender as a screen and picked the glove side on Riley to put the Canes up a goal.

Wellington responded late in the first when Justin Doak bagged his first of the season at 17:25. Zach Mascard delivered the puck to the Newmarket goal line and Doak was there to lift a rebound up and over Alex Armellin.

Mascard was in on Wellington’s second tally, which also came late in the frame and was also picked up on the power play. Mascard’s slick backhand dish from the corner provided time and space for Jordan Mayo to fire a laser beam past Armellin with under five minutes left in the middle stanza.

Mayo originally signed with an outfit called the Billings Cattle Punchers of the North American Hockey League earlier this summer, but was rescued from such a fate by Dukes brass.

The Dukes were guilty of some sloppy play early in the third and Newmarket’s Presley Allain was left wide open on the back door and had all day to tap the puck past Riley, knotting the contest up at 2-2.

Wellington’s Sammy Longo had the tie breaker on his stick at the midway point of the third and only a desperation dive across the Newmarket goal line by Armellin kept Wellington from retaking the lead. That was as close as the locals would come on this night. Former Markham Royal Josh Giordano potted the game winner in the shootout.

Riley was brilliant, making 46 stops in defeat.

JUST CHARGE IT
Leading OJHL point getter Zach Mascard had a goal and an assist in the first 11:21 of play Wednesday and the prospects of Wellington, leading 3-1 at the time, leaving Mississauga with two points in tow seemed to be high.

Frank Lecce answered for the Chargers before the close of the first period to make it 3-2.

Levesque and Mascard set up Marleau at 3:07 of the second to reestablish Wellington’s two goal cushion and the Dukes were still okay at that point in the contest.

But the Chargers came on in the second, scoring a pair of goals 13 seconds apart just past the midway point of the period. The hosts outshot Wellington 15-6 in the frame.

Tied at 4-4, Wellington had no answer in the third. Goals by Milo Tian and Alex Loschiavo helped the Chargers win this one going away and sending the Dukes down in defeat at Port Credit Arena for the first time in many moons.

After travelling to Milton last night, Wellington hosts North York Friday.

Then, after sitting idle for a week, Wellington makes its first visit to Trenton for the first round of the Battle of the Bay of Quinte September 25.