December drive
STORY AND PHOTO: KEVIN SCANLON Dukes are searching for that killer instinct The calendar has just flipped to December with Christmas weeks away, but it is not too early to be thinking of the Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs. There is an old hockey adage that early season games count as much in the standings as those in the final weeks. Perhaps there is less urgency in November games, where it sometimes appears a team is not quite playing the full 60 minutes their coach had envisioned. Almost two weeks ago, the Dukes took an early lead over North York, […]
Friday night delight
Should we even call it nostalgia when we’re only thinking back to last season when it seemed like every Friday was Hockey Night in Wellington? The parking lot would be overflowing by 7:15 and there were nights when the crowd exceeded 600. In the stands, there were all those familiar faces from Bloomfield, Huyck’s Point Road and Wellington on the Lake. And there were smiles and friendly greetings inside the lobby from Betty, Judy, Linda and the 50-50 sellers Robert, Ken, Derek and Rita. It was a weekly social event. And the 50-50 was always close to $400. But this […]
Winning ways return
Dukes get their defensive mojo back On the Monday following a pivotal weekend, your correspondent will focus on the positive. That’s not to suggest there weren’t wobbly moments— especially on Sunday—but we choose to look beyond a bizarre game on Sunday—to recognize the good bits and what they may portend for the rest of the season. First, the Dukes rediscovered how to play in their own zone. Mostly. It helped to get defenceman Kyle Grasby back in the lineup. His absence nearly perfectly overlays the Dukes’ losing streak. Another sturdy defenceman, Tristan Williams, finally emerged from a thicket of paperwork […]
Leaky D
Dukes put up defensive gem on Saturday, a dud on Sunday In the game of hockey, if you score six goals in a game, more often than not, your team is likely to win that match. Similarly, if you limit your opponent to a single goal, success is all but assured. Both things happened to the Dukes in a pair of games over the weekend, but alas, the team didn’t win either. And so the Dukes’ winless streak continues. But winless doesn’t mean pointless. The Dukes managed a 1-1 draw in Saturday’s game in Haliburton. It was the seventh game […]
Mired
Dukes lose another, caught in their own zone The loss on Sunday stung more than others. The Lindsay Muskies wanted it more. They worked harder. Fought harder. For sixty minutes. The Dukes had moments. Flashes of effort. Glimpses of the level of intensity required to win in the OJHL. But not enough of them. Moving the puck out from their own zone remains an adventure. It means the Dukes must rely on netminder Royden Smith to put the lid on opponents who set up shop in the Wellington end and won’t leave until they’ve snagged a scoring chance, or three. […]
Dark October
Dukes’ struggles on full display The Dukes will be glad to see the back of October. The month has been brutal for the team as it won just a single game—of 12 games played. Wellington lost five games in overtime last month. It’s time to put the ghosts, goblins and memories of October behind us. PICKERING 6 – WELLINGTON 5 2OT Monday night is a strange night for hockey. Particularly in Wellington. Outside of playoffs, I can’t remember the last time a visiting team arrived for a game on Monday. It showed in the sparse attendance. (Game 3 of the […]
Inflection
Have the Dukes turned a corner on a bad October? Maybe. Maybe the Dukes have stabilized after a rocky couple of weeks. While the weekend delivered just a single point, the team looked like a team for the first time in a stretch. It was a week the team parted ways with a fan favourite, Kyle Kavc, but introduced two new players and welcomed back a grizzled veteran. Will Mitchell returned to Wellington wearing the familiar #19 jersey on Friday night. It is the 20-year-old’s third turn with the Dukes. Liam Campbell scored in his first game with the Dukes. […]
Rough October
Losing streak erases gains made in September It was a tough week to be a Dukes fan. Worse for a Dukes’ goalie. By Sunday night, Wellington had played four games in six days. The Dukes had scored at least four goals in each game—but lost all of them. By Monday, the losing streak reached five games. Neither was Wellington playing the league’s elite. Lindsay and St. Mikes are middle- of-the-pack squads. Aurora has a sub .500 record, and North York hadn’t won a game all season—until Wellington came to town. It should not have played out this way. The Dukes […]
Just enough
Dukes must find another gear, sooner Has the Dukes’ success early this season lulled this upstart team into complacency? A misplaced sense that every game would be within reach by the third, at which time, the Dukes’ stars would turn up the gas and overpower their opponents on the way to yet another victory? Comfort can be a killer in sports. WELLINGTON 2 – HALIBURTON 0 The Dukes sleepwalked through much of the game at home last week against the Haliburton County Huskies. The Huskies are struggling this season, though the team still has weapons it can use to do […]
Rolling
Dukes hit a bump, but keep on winning The Dukes continue to roll along on their winning ways, taking two of three games on the weekend and extending their early-season record to five wins and a loss. Even the loss, to Stouffville on Friday, was a highly contested performance— but for a pile of penalties might have produced a different outcome. The Dukes sit atop the East Conference as measured by winning percentage and the team is tied for third overall in the OJHL. STOUFFVILLE 6 – WELLINGTON 4 Penalties defined this game. Stouffville power plays shaped its outcome and […]