Mixed messages
Penalties and suspensions mar important divisional wins Sixty-four minutes of penalties assessed. In one game. That’s what the Wellington Dukes accumulated on Friday night. Oh… and they won the game. In overtime. Downing the Trenton Golden Hawks 4-3 in overtime. An ugly match. Earning the Dukes one-game suspensions for three players. Against a lone suspension […]
Doldrums
Dukes losing games to teams who want to win more than they do The Wellington Dukes are nearing the midway point in their season with one more loss than wins. That this team is playing at under .500 shouldn’t be that surprising given their age and size relative to other OJHL competitors. Rather it is […]
Solid weekend
Dukes rebound with tenacity In the early part of the season, it wasn’t clear what to make of Frank Vitucci. The 19-year-old winger from Philadelphia was fast and skilled, but easily riled. He had generated five points in his first five games in September. But then he went quiet. Nothing in his next eight games. […]
Unstructured
Giveaways and flimsy play in their own zone cost the Dukes another two losses Too many unforced errors. Too many exit passes that never leave the Wellington end. Too many giveaways. Not enough goaltending. Even counting their lone win in three games, this was the story of the Dukes’ weekend. Fourteen goals scored against—in three […]
Tough going
Mass tempers velocity as Whitby schools the Dukes When your team is defined by speed and tenacity, it is essential that you bring those attributes to every shift of every game. Otherwise the result is painful— physically and on the scoreboard. The Wellington Dukes experienced this in jarring sensurround on Friday night. The Whitby Fury […]
Bounce back
Dukes regain composure after dreary outing at home It was a game that seemed as though it might slip into the gorge, erupting in flames. After a lacklustre loss at home against Cobourg on Friday night, the Dukes and their netminder Olivier Lafreniere bounced back with solid 3-0 victory over the Tigers in Aurora on […]
Wobbly start
September reveals gaps in the Dukes game It is hard to know what to make of the Wellington Dukes at the end of the first month of the regular season. For that matter, it is equally hard to figure the entire OJHL. After 11 games the Dukes have lost as many games as they’ve won, […]
Stiffened
Fortified defence restore Dukes to their winning ways The Wellington Dukes rebounded with a pair of wins in recent days (Tuesday’s result came after press time), coming off three worrying losses a week ago. The wins also marked a return of some defensive structure and poise that had all but vanished during the skid. The […]
Things fall apart
Dukes defensive structure evaporates The Dukes will be going back to the whiteboard this week—moving Xs and Os around until they relearn the basics of playing structured defensive hockey in the OJHL. It’s not like they don’t know this stuff, but rather that they showed little evidence of it this past weekend. So you start […]
Speed kings
The Dukes use all the quickness they can muster to outmanoeuvre their bigger opponents Nothing comes easy. And after the first week of the regular season, the Dukes are sitting on a pair of wins. The outcome of each match, however, might easily have gone the other way. It was that close. In both games, […]