No easy outs

For Wellington, determined play is job one

Complacency is clearly the enemy when it comes to this year’s Wellington Dukes. Complacency and a steady stream of players to the club’s injured reserve list. But one battle at a time.

Need evidence that deficiency in spite of results won’t be tolerated?

You could hear the impetus in Wellington Dukes Coach and General Manager Jacob Panetta’s voice after his club’s 6-4 win over the visiting Pickering Panthers Friday night.

Backing up, the Dukes (8-4-2) earned a split at the 2026 Governors’ Showcase in Niagara Falls against a pair of tough Western Conference teams earlier in the week in the form of Leamington and Burlington. While the Collingwood Blues are the safest bet to win the Conference title again this season, don’t sleep on either the Flyers or Cougars challenging the Blues down the wire for the regular season title.

So when the Dukes opened up a 5-1 lead after two periods of play against the visiting Panthers Friday night, anyone that’s observed junior hockey for a while could have predicted what was coming.

The Dukes were outstanding over 40 minutes and the contest should have been a blowout.

But then, something happened to Wellington on the way back to the barn. The urgency level dropped. The gas pedal wasn’t mashed to the floor.

And Pickering, passengers for most of this ride, sensed blood in the water in the final 20 minutes.

The game was on and Wellington suddenly developed a limp. Starter Dryden Riley was under siege more than ever in the Dukes’ net. Only an opportunistic offence kept Wellington’s winning margin intact.

A REDO
When presented with the consideration of getting out of a home game with two points in tow after a lengthy road trip, it was clear Panetta was not happy with how the third period played out. A season ago, the then rookie bench boss might have agreed that a pair of points was the ultimate prize on this night and how they were delivered was secondary. But not this season.

“I would really like to redo that third period to be honest,” Panetta told the Times. “Our goaltending in Dryden Riley and Mason Raycroft have been our absolute backbone over the past two weeks and for the team in front of them to hang Dryden out to dry in that third period tonight was very frustrating to watch, especially after we put up the most consistent two periods of the season in the first and second tonight.”

“I sound like a broken record in that our affiliate players and new additions to the line up are stepping up and you saw that tonight but there’s still a lot of things we need to work on in order to get better,” he added.

COMING UP CLUTCH
Wellington kicked off the 2026 Governors’ Showcase with a 2-1 shootout win over Leamington. Fortune favoured the locals early as a puck skipped over the stick of a Flyer defender at the Wellington blue line. Kasen Beitz darted up the ice to collect the loose puck and break in alone on Leamington starter Tomas Kniaziew at 7:25 to stake the Dukes to a 1-0 lead.

The star of the game was Riley who managed to stop all but one of Leamington’s 44 volleys in regulation. A second period power play tally by Ashton Darocy was the only blemish on Riley’s outing in Niagara Falls.

After a scoreless overtime, the game went to a shootout. Eric Muxlow put the Flyers in the driver’s seat at the end of round two, only to see Zack Mascard come back up the ice and score to lead off round three, picking the five hole on Kniaziew. Riley was perfect the rest of the way and rookie Austin Ottenhof had a brilliant stopand- start move at the hash marks. The Leamington netminder bit hard on the deke and the Odessa, ON native went high glove to win it for Wellington.

PENALTY TROUBLE
The following day, the Cougars were three-for-five with the man advantage, slicing and dicing Wellington’s penalty killing unit with relative ease.

The Dukes were still in the game in the second as Beitz went top shelf from the slot 1:44 into the middle stanza to make it 2-2 in the second.

But power play goals from Burlington’s Ty Daniels and Mick Tessier before the end of the frame put the Cougars comfortably ahead to stay at 4-2. The Cougars added another in the third to make it a 5-2 final.

DAZZLING HOME DEBUT
Wellington came out hot against Pickering and it was the club’s latest addition getting the Dukes on the board first.

And second.

Pinckney, MI native Marco Wolf picked up the puck in the slot just after a Pickering penalty had expired and the newest recruit picked high blocker side at 6:44 for his first OJHL goal.

Wolf’s second tally of the night came just under five minutes later. Starting the play with a diagonal dump-in, Wolf prowled to the slot again and Marleau’s delicate feed gave the sniper time and space to again go top shelf.

Up by two, Wolf had a hand in Wellington’s third goal that came off the stick of Marleau at 15:14.

The Panthers countered with a power play goal in the final moments of play in the first but it was all Wellington in the second.

Cameron Shaw’s dogged determination below the goal line led to a pass from the corner to a wide-open Isaiah More and the Picton Pirate call-up picked up his first OJHL goal with a high slot shot to the far low corner at 7:13.

More added an assist on Justin Doak’s goal with 20 seconds left and the game was coming far too easily for the Dukes.

The contest changed direction in the first minute of the third. Pickering’s Jeremiah D’Ornellas beat Riley off a scramble to give the Cats some life. Emanuel Ganz capitalized on some sloppy Wellington play with about eight minutes to go to make it a 5-3 game but the Dukes quickly flexed their offensive muscle. Wolf laid out a nice stretch pass that Marleau fired home for his 12th tally in 13 games to make it 6-3 Wellington. D’Ornellas tacked on a goal late with the Pickering netminder off for an extra attacker to make the game closer than it was. Or at least should have been.

LATE START
Wellington had another catfight on their hands the following night and the locals weren’t as lucky. The host Aurora Tigers had the Dukes stuck in neutral for most of the first two periods and a comeback bid by the locals fell just short.

After a scoreless first in which starter Mason Raycroft held Aurora off the score sheet, the Tabbies finally counted with a pair of goals in the opening three minutes of the second.

Outshot 30-9 through most of the second, Wellington finally solved Aurora starter Lucas Carpino with under two minutes left in the period.

Enjoying a power play, man-advantage mayhem in front of the Tigers’ twine tent led to Wellington defender Presley Kelly-Wright bagging his third of the campaign that made it 2-1 Aurora.

The Tigers got the insurance dagger they were looking for midway through the third by way of a Connor Hollebek power play strike.

Gavin Godick gave Wellington a chance to draw even with a nifty move off the blue line, going high glove side on Carpino with 2:11 left. Mascard had a glorious chance in the high slot with just over a minute left but he didn’t get a stick on the puck cleanly. Marleau had a clean look with time winding down but Carpino was brilliant in the waning moments.

ON DECK
Wellington stays busy this weekend, travelling to Lindsay on Friday to tangle with the Muskies. The task gets taller as the Conference-leading Markham Royals are in Wellington on Sunday night.

The following night the Dukes are in Cobourg to meet up with Derek Smith’s Cougars.