Defenceman Mitch McNeill has returned to his Junior ‘B’ team in Strathroy to finish his junior career. Mc- Neill had 3 goals and 9 assists during his tenure with the Dukes.

Weekend games to provide a key test

The Wellington Dukes were back on the ice on Monday afternoon getting ready for the final stretch. Just 15 games remain in the regular schedule and first place seems a stretch at this point. For that to happen both Trenton and Cobourg would have to stumble badly over the next month and a half—something neither team has done with regularity this season. Cobourg hasn’t lost two in a row since September. Trenton hasn’t put two losses together since October.

Meanwhile the Dukes will have to compile an impressive winning schedule—and avoid messy losses such as the one handed to them by the Lindsay Muskies just before the Christmas break.

Coach and GM Marty Abrams is downplaying expectations, saying, “In the next 15 games we hope to win more than we lose and put together a solid game plan for the playoffs.”

The Dukes have acquired Stephen Saretsky from the Dawson Creek Rage of the NAHL. Abrams says Saretsky brings speed and skill to the Dukes lineup. The 20-year-old Richmond B.C. native has bounced around this season; the Wellington Dukes will be the fourth club he’s skated with since September. Defenceman Mitch McNeill has returned to his Junior ‘B’ team back in Strathroy to finish out his junior career. The stalwart blueliner made a strong impact early in the season but saw his ice time squeezed with the addition of Kyllian Kirkwood and Kevin Swales to the Dukes lineup. Meanwhile Jeff Stanton has left the Dukes for undisclosed reasons.

Much can still change in the lineups of all teams in the run up to the January 10 deadline. In the next six days teams must decide if they have the legs to go deep into the playoffs— or begin the process of rebuilding for next year.

Abrams says he isn’t expecting to make any more moves before the trade deadline— but with the Dukes’ track record and success so far this season, it seems likely Abrams’s Blackberry will be humming over the next few days—as talents from teams going nowhere seek to hitch a ride on the Dukes’ playoff run.

Veteran forward Jeff Stanton has left the Dukes for undisclosed reasons.

UP NEXT: TRENTON AND TORONTO LAKESHORE
The Dukes host the Trenton Golden Hawks in their last meeting of the regular season. The Dukes won four of five previous games against Trenton this season. Expect Coach Jerome Dupont to have his players prepared to play on Friday night. The Golden Hawks coach doesn’t want to head into a playoff round with the Dukes having lost their last five matches to this team.

Meanwhile Abrams will certainly underline the importance of a win on Friday in the post-season. On Saturday the Dukes travel to Mimico for the first of two meetings with the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots. The Patriots are a vastly improved team over last year’s squad—currently sitting in second place in the South Division behind St. Mike’s.

Both Trenton and Toronto Lakeshore will provide an important test for the well-rested Dukes.

Where are they now?

The Wellington Dukes trace their hockey roots to the former Belleville Bobcats franchise, purchased in 1989 by 10-year operators of a successful Wellington Junior ‘C’ representative who moved the acquired squad to the tiny Village. This is the fourteenth in a series of tracking down former Duke Players.

NAME: SEAMUS KOTYK
It’s not often that a 15 year old makes a Junior ‘A’ team and it’s even rarer when that player happens to be a goaltender, but Seamus made the 1995-96 Dukes squad and put up some pretty impressive numbers. He would later play four years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Ottawa 67’s and has a pretty good resume in the nation’s capital.

In his first season in the OHL his 2.66 goals against average was the lowest among all rookie goaltenders. His second year saw him named to the Third All-Star Team as he helped his team win the Memorial Cup. In his final season the London, Ontario native was the winner of the Wayne Gretzky Trophy as the OHL Post-season Most Valuable Player as the 67’s made it to the Memorial Cup again.

A fifth-round pick of the Boston Bruins in the 1999 NHL entry draft, he played the next five years in the American Hockey League in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Rockford and Houston. After playing a couple more seasons in Germany and Austria, Seamus retired as a professional hockey player in 2009.

Today he is the goaltender coach of the Ontario Hockey League Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

DID YOU KNOW?
In 2005 Seamus became just the eighth goaltender in AHL history to score a goal.