North York netminder Leo Podolski kicks out a blast from David Pratt, with Anthony Taylor looking for the rebound on Friday night.

Hope fades for preliminary playoff round bye

The path to first or second place in the East just got a lot tougher. After winning seven of their previous eight games the Wellington Dukes were making a serious charge to be one of two teams to earn a bye in the preliminary round of the playoffs.

But with a pair of back-to-back losses the Dukes must now rely upon other teams to beat Trenton (No. 1) and Cobourg (No. 2) in order to leapfrog past one or both of these teams. It is no longer in the Dukes’ hands to make this happen.

Yet the playoff picture is far from clear. In fact the past week has seen both Trenton and Cobourg stumble, giving the Dukes an opening. But despite a strong effort the Dukes gave up a point on Sunday and were shut out by Cobourg 3-0 on Monday.

With just five games left (three at home) the Dukes enjoy a better schedule over the next two weeks than Trenton and particularly Cobourg, who play their final seven games in nine days. Yet the Dukes have to win and hope for some luck. Meanwhile the Dukes have to be mindful of Whitby, who are winners of five of their last seven games, both losses coming at the hands of the Dukes.

DISCIPLINE CRACKS
The least-penalized team in the OJHL lost its composure on Monday night as the Dukes spent much of the game killing penalties. Playing nearly 14 minutes with at least one player in the box likely cost the Dukes the game, and perhaps a shot at second place in the East.

Darcy Murphy hunts for his own rebound after bringing the puck around the defender and nearly beating Finn on the short side.

It was a closely fought battle through the first period. Early in the second Cobourg grabbed the lead. Then David Pratt was tagged for tripping. The Cougars scored on the ensuing power play. In total the Dukes handed Cobourg seven power play opportunities— forcing Wellington to defend rather than attack. The final blow came early in the third with sniper Guillaume Naud in the penalty box for roughing after the whistle. The Cougars scored to seal the win.

For the second straight night the Dukes’ impressive array of guns was mostly silent—scoring just a single goal in a pair of key divisional games.

NOT ENOUGH
When the Kingston Voyageurs look back on the season they will have to ask themselves why they didn’t play every night the way they play Wellington. In four previous matches between the two clubs this season, Kingston has won three—while mustering just a .500 record through the remainder of the schedule.

The Dukes were ready for the feisty Vees on Sunday, dominating the Kingston squad with speed and tenacity from the puck drop. Adam Ritchie and Jan Kaminsky combine for a goal just a minute into the game—a rout seemed to be forming. But despite 55 more shots on Vees netminder Charlie Finn, the Dukes couldn’t muster another goal.

Kingston tied the score with a squib shot that Jared Lockhurst stopped, but the puck twisted out of his grasp and spun into the net.

Battling through some uneven officiating in the third, the Dukes couldn’t beat Finn for the goahead goal.

Five minutes of overtime solved nothing. It took 14 shooters before the Vees were awarded the win. Only Darcy Murphy scored for the Dukes side. Meanwhile Kingston’s Greg Trichilo and former Dukes forward Jaret Smith beat Lockhurst for the win.

“I thought we played well on Sunday,” said Bessette “We just couldn’t bury our chances. We knew it was going to be a hard game—Kingston always plays well against us. We weren’t quite as consistent as we had been on Friday. It cost us an important point.”

SHOCK AND AWE
The Dukes took to the ice at speed on Friday night in Wellington. But despite bombarding the Rangers’ netminder with 35 shots over the first two periods—the Dukes trailed North York by a goal. Andrew Pearson saw just 14 shots during the same period.

David Pratt scored with a low bullet to tie the score at one with just a minute left in the second.

The Dukes took the lead for the first time early in the second in one of the deftest goals Dukes fans have seen this season. Anthony Taylor gathered up the puck along the boards in the North York zone and swooped buzzard- like behind the net. To everyone in the rink—on and off the ice—it appeared Taylor was going to pass it to the slot or try and stuff the puck short side. Instead, with some skilled sleight of hand, he slipped the puck behind him where Craig Campbell was waiting—staring at an open net. Campbell notched his eleventh goal of the season.

The score held until there were just 90 seconds left in the game. With the Rangers pressing, Chris Smith evened the score at two goals apiece. But as he has done many times this season, Darcy Murphy pushed down the wing on the next shift and regained the lead. Anthony Taylor buried an empty-net goal to secure the win.

“From my prospective I though we played a great game on Friday night,” said Simon Bessette. “It was a full 60 minutes and a lot of shots on net. We deserved to win that game.”

With the win over North York on Friday the Wellington Dukes sealed the team’s thirteenth consecutive season with 30 wins or more.

UP NEXT: KINGSTON, WHITBY AND NORTH YORK
The Dukes travel to Kingston tonight for their final game of the season with the Voyageurs.

On Friday the Dukes host the Whitby Fury and on Sunday will travel to North York.

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 eighteenth in a series of tracking down former Duke Players.

NAME: CHRIS BROWN
The Centreville, Ontario native (no relation) has had to battle his way through the different levels of hockey as his small stature required him to find other ways of succeeding and surviving. In 2004 the 16-year-old forward managed to make the Napanee Raiders team which plays in the Junior ‘C’ loop and has players as old as 21 years. He played well enough to have earned several year-end team awards including Most Valuable Player, Best Plus/Minus, Rookie of the Year and Playoff Scoring Leader. He also caught the eyes of the Dukes brain trust and was called up to play six Junior ‘A’ games as an affiliate and didn’t look out of place.

The next season Chris made the Dukes full-time and played mostly on a checking line and became a top penalty killer as well. His second season saw his role increase as he helped the team reach the OJHL Playoff Finals. Two more seasons with the Dukes saw him have the best point production of his career as he finished with 81 points, double his best prior points season.

After graduating from the Dukes Chris went on to NCAA Oswego State University of New York, and while his first two seasons would be considered quiet ones, he has turned it up a notch this year recording 17 points in just 19 games. Now a junior majoring in marketing, he has helped the Lakers to reach second ranked status in the country and recorded his first hat trick last Saturday in a 6 to 4 win over Brockport.

DID YOU KNOW?
Chris holds the Dukes franchise record for assists in the regular season with 57 in 2008-2009.