Steven Deeg just misses a chance to narrow the Kingston lead in the second period on Friday as Voyageurs’ netminder Sam Tanguay just gets enough of the puck to swat it away from his net.

Critical loss reveals gaping hole in Dukes defensive game

It was a critical game. A win would have propelled the Wellington Dukes into the catbird seat amid the jumble of teams vying for the East Division championship. A Dukes’ win would also have the effect of tethering the Kingston Voyageurs to the peloton in second place—vulnerable to a team such as the Dukes slingshotting around them in the final stretch.

Now the odds of that happening have shrunk.

By the time the Dukes travel to Trenton on Friday night—they will have just four games left in the regular season. Now the Dukes must rely on Kingston faltering over the next 10 days. They need the Voyageurs’ opponents to do what they could not.

DUKES 1- KINGSTON 4
The Dukes didn’t play badly on Friday night— they had their chances. Near misses. Goalposts. But they lacked the extra step, the confidence that was so evident in their win against Cobourg a week earlier.

The most worrying aspect of this game was that the Dukes made the same mistake, over and over again. In their own end. Losing battles behind their own net. Three times they coughed up the puck behind the redline. A quick pass to the forward in the slot and the puck was in the Dukes net. Three times. The same play. Three goals.

Luc Brown and Trevor Cope combined to narrow the Kingston lead to 2-1 early in the second. But only moments later, with aggressive forechecking by the Kingston forwards, the Dukes lost the puck behind their net. A second later it was 3-1. Early in the third—another giveaway—another goal. Intermission ambitions of a comeback were extinguished.

Despite missing 12 games in late November and December, Trevor Cope is the third-leading point getter on his team with 43. He has eight points in his last five games.

DUKES 4 – ORANGEVILLE 0
The Dukes found a more pliant opponent in Orangeville on Saturday night. The Flyers are just playing out the string—they haven’t won a game since Christmas. The Dukes’ captain Erick Delaurentis scored a pair of goals, followed by tallies by Steven Deeg and Mike Robinson. Trevor Welsh turned away all 40 shots he faced from his old team—only his second start in the Dukes’ net.

Mike Soucier missed his third game since leaving the game against Cobourg on January 31, with a lower body injury.

ON THE ROAD
When the Times arrives on newsstands on Wednesday morning, the Dukes will have embarked on a roadswing to Buffalo and Burlington. The more interesting match will have been against Mike Peca’s Buffalo squad on Tuesday night. The Junior Sabres currently sit atop the West Division, but are fending off a stiff challenge from Georgetown just one point back. Georgetown has won four of their last five games, including a 3-2 win over Cobourg on Monday night.

Tonight, the Dukes are in Burlington. The West Division Cougars will miss the playoffs, but are nevertheless playing some of their best hockey in their final games of the 2013/14 regular season. Burlington downed Whitby a week ago and then fell a goal short in a rematch with the Fury on Sunday.

The Cougars are not to be trifled with.

After a couple nights rest, the Dukes travel to Trenton to face their cross-bay rivals. The Golden Hawks have languished at the bottom of the East Division for weeks. But this is more a measure of the strength of the division rather than the strength of the team.

Trenton has been spotty down the stretch— winning decisively some nights, failing to show up on others. It will be intriguing to see which team shows up on Friday. And in the playoffs.

UP NEXT: HAMILTON RED WINGS

Story: David Brown
The Hamilton Red Wings trace their roots back to 1973, when they joined a Junior B league and one of their more famous alumnus is former Belleville Bull and two-time Stanley Cup Champion Marty Mc- Sorley. In 1993, they joined what is now called the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) and in 2007 made it to the playoff semi-finals before falling to the eventual champions, the Aurora Tigers. Last year, the team won only five games, but have improved to 17 as of this write-up and are a young hard-working group.

Players to watch for are number 93 Alex Zaccaria who leads the team in goals and short-handed goals. Number 25 Corey Caruso leads in assists and power play goals. Number 23 Niko Porikos tops their defencemen in points, while Mark Sinclair and Corey Foster share net duties.