Heckuva thing
Dukes ride a three-game streak as they get set to welcome Trenton next Friday It was some week for the Dukes of Wellington. After Dryden Riley turned away 52 shots in a scarcely attended and improbable victory on Wednesday, the Dukes struggled to get by the woeful Cobourg Cougars at home on Friday night. (Zach Carrier salvaged the two points with a penalty shot goal in the second overtime. We’ll explain in a bit.) Then on Saturday night, they defeated the Hurricanes—possibly their first round playoff opponent—in Newmarket. Three wins in three games. It was an important statement. At the […]
Two steps forward…
Snow and schedule make January hockey an adventure The Wellington Dukes are a team that appears to be rounding into playoff form—though the renovation remains a work in progress. The Dukes strong-armed both St. Michael’s and Markham with self-assuredness last week—a pair of East Conference teams that had posed a challenge to Wellington earlier in the season. But on Saturday night, they couldn’t keep pace with the East Conference’s second-place Stouffville Spirit—closer, but not yet there. Snow blew away Sunday’s game with Caledon. The new faces are proving their worth. Dryden Riley has been sturdy in the Dukes’ net, while […]
Low visibility
Dukes rack up three points in a pair of games The Dukes didn’t get to Collingwood last week due to the weather, and snow again threatened Monday’s game in Cobourg. Such is hockey in January. WELLINGTON 4 – PICKERING 4 The Wellington Dukes managed to venture out to Pickering on Friday night. The Dukes racked up a two-goal lead in the first, with goals from Captain Sacha Trudel and Blake Berthiaume. But then allowed four unanswered Pickering goals before the end of the second period. But midway through the third, something happened. Two Dukes goals in 11 seconds. Landon Marleau […]
Sluggish start
New netminder and new skaters look to give the sagging Dukes a push toward the playoffs It’s been a rough start to the new year for the Wellington Dukes. The team lost all three games it has played this month. All were road games. Its next three games are also on the road. The Dukes play at home next on Tuesday, January 20. Meanwhile, the team was active at the OJHL trade deadline, adding a netminder and a trio of forwards, including Cain Tucker, son of former Leaf Darcy Tucker. Even in three losses, there appeared silver linings. All three […]
Strong finish
Longest winning streak of the season brings 2025 to a close Dukes fans might have been hoping for two or three wins from their final four games of 2025; it is unlikely that many, outside the Wellington dressing room, imagined the team sweeping all four. Yet that is how the Wellington Dukes head into the holiday break. On the back of five straight victories, the Dukes moved up a few notches in the East Conference, into fifth spot, just two points behind Pickering and Newmarket. As the year draws to a close, Wellington is just six points back of Trenton, […]
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 […]
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 […]