All business

The Dukes’ buttoned-down way of winning

Dukes forward Jeff Carrol attempts to stuff the puck past the Junior Canadiens netminder Derek Mohney.

This morning the Wellington Dukes stand second in the nation, according to the Canadian Junior Hockey League weekly rankings, behind only the Humboldt Broncos of Saskatchewan. These are pretty lofty heights for the team from little old Wellington.

The Dukes sit atop the Ontario Junior Hockey league ranks with the best winning percentage (.917) among the 31 teams in the league. The Dukes aren’t winning with a lot of flash. They aren’t blowing teams away or dazzling them with scoring prowess. Rather, this team is taking a very workmanlike approach to each game. Good conditioning.

Solid preparation. Structured game plan execution. Patience and discipline. Balanced attack.

It doesn’t hurt that the team may also have the best goaltending tandem in the league, with Jordan Ruby and Ryan McDonald making stops most netminders in this league cannot.

The team boasts the league’s lowest goals-against average, and the Dukes are once again the least penalized team in the league by a wide margin. These are just a few of the ingredients that have kept the Dukes in the top echelons of junior hockey.

They haven’t lost a game in regular time. The team has only two losses—one in overtime, the other in a shootout. They don’t dominate; they just win.

TORONTO THE HUMBLED

Friday offered a good example. The Toronto Junior Canadiens came into Wellington with one of the worst records in the OJHL. But in recent days Toronto had acquired a strong goalie from Georgetown and a sniper from Pickering. And every struggling team dreams on the bus ride to Wellington of knocking off the Dukes in the DukeDome. In the early going, Derek Mohney was full value for the Junior Canadiens, turning back the Dukes’ bombardment. But it couldn’t last. Nearing the end of the first period, the Dukes’ leading points getter Sean Rudy picked up the puck in his own end, forcefully weaving his way up the ice. He shovelled a pass ahead to Darcy Murphy who neatly split the defence at the blueline, fired and scored.

Steve Evans and Zach Blake opened the wound wider, tallying a pair of goals early in the second period. Moments later, in likely the highlight play of the game, newcomer Evans won the face-off in the Toronto zone and skated directly to the net. To all the world he was about to stuff the puck short-side, but instead slid the puck across the crease to a wide-open Jeff Stanton, who tucked it home for his first goal of the season. Down 4-0, the Junior Canadiens began taking the Dukes into the boards. If they couldn’t win on the scoresheet, perhaps they could salvage some self esteem by bruising the Dukes.

Wellington began running around and soon Toronto had scored three unanswered goals, narrowing the gap to one.

Dukes forward Brian Bunnett looks to advance the puck during play on Friday night at the DukeDome.

On a power play Steve Evans scored a deadly accurate short-side goal from the face-off circle, restoring the Dukes’ two-goal margin. Just like that, the Junior Canadiens realized their chance to win in Wellington had evaporated, gone because of the team’s “too many men on the ice” penalty— their second such penalty of the game.

Zach Blake rounded out the scoring with his seventh goal of the season—tied for second most goals on his team.

BALANCED ATTACK

On Sunday the Dukes travelled to Lindsay. The Dukes opened up a three-goal lead by midway through the second period with three different goalscorers—Darcy Greenaway, Brian Bunnett and Joe Zarbo—from six different playmakers—Zach Allen, Mitch Rosborough, Zack Jones, Simon Bessette, Sean Rudy and Michael Montford.

Early in the third the Muskies got one back. But moments later Joe Zarbo tallied to extend the lead again. But the Muskies weren’t finished, scoring their second midway through the third. Zack Jones ended Lindsay’s comeback hopes with an empty net goal to complete another winning weekend for the Dukes.

The Dukes travelled to Peterborough on Tuesday night for their first match with the Stars this season.

UP NEXT: UPPER CANADA

The Dukes have a rare one-game schedule this weekend facing the surprising Upper Canada Patriots at the DukeDome on Friday night.

Upper Canada sit atop the South Division standings with 11 wins and five losses in 16 games. They also rank near the top in terms of penalties, averaging 24 minutes per game in the box.

The Patriots have broad-based attack. Their players don’t dominate any statistics. Most of their wins have, however, come in their own division. Both Kingston and Peterborough have beaten Upper Canada quite handily this season.