Gripping

Every game an adventure

The 2023 Dukes are crafting an exciting season. While past teams may have dominated lesser opponents and regularly resided in the vicinity of first place in their division and sometimes conference, the current edition of Dukes is hovering around the middle of the pack—neither winning nor losing on a consistent basis.

Nevertheless, every game is exciting— thrilling entertainment. Especially at home.

The Dukes lead the league with wins in overtime—tied with Lindsay, for nail-biters.

DUKES 5 – PICKERING 2
Pickering brought their best game to Wellington on Friday night. It remains a matter of pride for OJHL teams and players to tangle with the Dukes in the best market in the league.

It may have been Ryan Schaap’s second game as a Dukes player, but the Carlisle winger made a powerful debut impression on Wellington fans on Friday night, scoring twice to lead his team to a 5-2 victory.

His first goal was particularly sweet. With his team on the power play midway through the first, Schaap carried the puck into the Panther zone. He fired a blisteringly hard shot from the high slot. The rebound came out to Cory Jewitt, who slid it to Pana Ephraimidis, who found Schaap drifting into the left faceoff circle. The pass came neatly into Schaap’s wheelhouse. One-timer. The Panther netminder had no chance.

Just before the end of the period, Pickering tied the game on the power play. The Panthers had come to play.

Midway through the second, Dukes’ defender Colin Smith found a lane deep and fired a hard wrister from the face-off dot.

Early in the third, Ethan Quick served up Schaap. Hard shot. The Dukes had restored the lead. But a bad pass on the power play midway through the final frame freed the Panthers’ leading scorer, Nicholas Anthanasakos, on a breakaway. He moved right, but flipped the puck top corner left side. Nice goal. Once again, the game was tied.

Moments later, Ephraimidis scored to regain the lead, and this time, it held. Dimitri Tzaferis scored into the empty net to seal the win.

Jack Lisson turned away 27 shots in this close-fought—but exciting—game. Perhaps dominating in the regular season is over-rated?

DUKES 3 – STOUFFVILLE 2
It was a similar affair on Sunday as the Dukes welcomed Stouffville to Wellington for the second time this season. Three shorthanded goals defined the game—sadly, two were scored by Spirit players. And plenty of penalties.

Stouffville forward Odaro Ewere scored on a breakaway while shorthanded to open the scoring midway through the first period. But with an intermission to flush that memory, Tzaferis scored his own shorthanded goal early in the second. Then Cory Jewitt finished a play from Nick DiPaulo to give the Dukes the lead. But seconds later, former Duke Cameron Kosurko scored another shorthanded goal to tie the game.

But seconds after the Spirit goal, speedy winger DiPaulo flew down the left wing with a hulking Spirit defender draped over him. Using leverage and incredible speed DiPaulo angled toward the net—using his left arm to push away the defenceman. With his other hand, DiPaulo lifted the puck nearside—into a puck-sized hole above the netminder’s shoulder.

That was it. The game wasn’t pretty—but it was exciting.

UP NEXT: NORTH YORK, PICKERING, AURORA AND TRENTON
By the end of next weekend, the Dukes will have played 39 games. Stouffville will have played 29—10 fewer games over the same span. For the Dukes, it means a really lean January for fans—with no Friday night games and just three Sunday games all month.

The North York Rangers will have visited Wellington on Tuesday after press time. The Rangers are scuffling along the bottom of the East Conference this season with just seven wins in 33 starts. North York has won just a single game in its last five matches. The Dukes beat the Rangers 4-2 in their last outing in Toronto.

On Friday night, the Dukes will welcome the Panthers back for a rematch. The Panthers can score, as the Dukes learned last Friday, but tend to be leaky on their own end—allowing 32 more goals than they have scored this season.

On Saturday, the Dukes head off to Aurora to face the Tigers for the second time this season. On November 17, the Dukes shut out Aurora 5-0 as Jack Lisson turned away 35 shots. The Tigers have lost all of their last five games, they’ve won just one in 10.

After a series of matches against the three lowest-ranked teams in the East, the Dukes return to Wellington on Sunday to face the Trenton Dukes for the first time at home. In what will undoubtedly be a boisterous and emotional game, Wellington will welcome Corbin Roach, Barrett Joynt, Lucas LaPalm, Ryan Cutler and Trevor McDowell back to the rink—on the wrong side of the arena. They will be joined by former Dukes coach Derek Smith.

Trenton defeated the Dukes at the Governor’s Showcase tournament in September, but the teams haven’t met since. Trenton leads the East Conference with 53 points in 31 games—and second only to Collingwood in the league. Trenton hasn’t lost a game in its last 15 games—with just one overtime loss pocking a perfect record since late in October.

The Dukes will not be lacking in motivation as they welcome Trenton on Sunday.