Doldrums

Daniel Panetta finishes his check with determination and finality on Friday night. The Dukes won 4-1.

Dukes struggle to maintain intensity

The Wellington Dukes seem content to linger with the middle of the pack. The team has had a good run recently with four wins in five games. In doing so they have moved back into contention in the East Division. There have been exceptional performances, exceptional exhibitions of talent and drive. But it has been altogether much too inconsistent.

The Dukes are a better team than the Markham Royals. More talent. More speed. Better coached. But on Sunday they stopped skating in the third. Or more precisely, when the Royals turned up the intensity, the Dukes declined to respond. Three unanswered goals. A loss that should have been a win.

The Dukes are a better team, too, than the Lindsay Muskies. But to watch the first five minutes at home on Friday it was hard to see the evidence of this fact. Even after Andrew Rinaldi scored on the power play early the game, the Dukes seemed wobbly. A couple of power plays helped the Dukes turn back the tide. They found their speed and skated to 4-1 win.

Yet the Dukes don’t inspire awe. Or fear.

As a team, the Dukes seem satisfied with .500.

Perhaps it is November. Perhaps the doldrums of the season. But doldrums can also come to define a season.

The Wellington Dukes will need to find a way to turn up the intensity of the team overall and deliver 60 minutes of effort in each game if they hope to break out of the middle of the pack. There is no better place to start than at home against the North York Rangers on Friday night.

DUKES 4 – LINDSAY 1
The Dukes didn’t leave their own zone until a Lindsay forward was assessed a minor penalty 90 seconds into the game. More luck than good management. Daniel Panetta and Elijah Gonsalves worked the puck to the net. Andrew Rinaldi was able to find the puck in the scramble and tuck it home.

A couple of power play opportunities. Nothing to show on the scoreboard. But the Muskies were back on their heels and worn out. Ben Woodhouse found Frank Vitucci with a pass in the mid-slot. Snipe. The Dukes had a two-goal lead.

The league’s third leading point-getter, Andrew Rinaldi, watches Elijah Gonsalves’s shot ping off the post in second period action on Friday.

Then it was the Dukes’ turn in the box. Lindsay scored on the power play early in second. But the Dukes kept pressing the play. Later in the second period, Vitucci and Woodhouse combined to set up Dylan Massie. His goal marked his fourth point in four games. For Woodhouse, it was his 10th point in 11 games and for Vitucci, his 14th point in his last 11 games.

In the third period, the Muskies sensed they could retrieve this game and came out rolling. Olivier Lafreniere was called upon to make a series of spectacular saves, closing the door on the Muskies.

Vitucci buried the empty net goal late in the third to secure the win.

MARKHAM 5 – DUKES 2
This one was within reach. Panetta scored early in the first on the power play, from Tyson Gilmour and Rinaldi. More than that, the Dukes carried the play and controlled the puck well in the Markham zone.

But seconds into a Markham power play early in the second period, the Royals tied the game. The Royals took the lead midway through the second period, the Markham sniper catching the far corner.

A moment later, Gonsalves made slick move around the defender and buried his shot, restoring the tie. The Dukes couldn’t build on this momentum. Instead, early in the third the Royals’ Luca Esposito beat Lafreniere a second time, through traffic.

The Dukes would get chances, but could not get the equalizer. Late in the period, and Wellington pressing, Esposito scored his third goal of the game. An empty net goal added a bit of salt to the wound.

UP NEXT: KINGSTON, NORTH YORK AND TRENTON
The Dukes go back to work on Thursday night in Kingston, kicking off three games in four days. Wellington lost 2-0 in its first match with the Voyageurs in September, but they pummelled Kingston 11-5 in their last outing in October. Kingston, like the Dukes, can play hot and cold—winning games against Whitby and Cobourg, but giving up points to Pickering and Mississauga.

On Friday, the Dukes welcome North York to Wellington. North York is currently ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation. They are anchored in net by County native Jett Alexander. With a goals-against average of a miserly 1.65 and a save percentage better than 94 per cent, Alexander leads the league by a wide margin.

The Rangers are also a disciplined team, with the second-lowest penalty minutes in the OJHL—and a little more than half the penalty minutes accumulated by the Dukes. On special teams, North York’s power play and penalty kill are among the top five in each category in the league.

Friday’s match will be a test for the Dukes.

On Sunday, Wellington visits Trenton—currently leading the East Division. In three previous games this season the Dukes prevailed in two and competed to a draw in the other. But each game has been close. And games in Trenton tend to be scrappy affairs.

The Golden Hawks are winners of four of their last five games, including a 3-1 win against the North York Rangers on Remembrance Day.