Happy new year

Dukes are off to a winning start to 2024

The Wellington Dukes are perfect in 2024. It is just two games. Against lesser teams. But still. It is an excellent start to a new year—and the run to the playoffs.

Based on the Dukes’ current seasonlong winning percentage, the team is poised to finish fourth in the conference. If the playoffs started this week, they would be playing Haliburton in the first round. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. There is still plenty of hockey to be played—though not so much for the Dukes in January. The team has just six games all month—with two already sorted. Just two more home games—both Sunday afternoon matches—including this weekend as Wellington welcomes the Cobourg Cougars.

HELLO AND GOODBYE
The Dukes added a couple of players at the trade deadline and said farewell to three others. Brad Barker (LW) and Josh Rumolo (D) give Wellington a little more heft as the team heads to the playoffs.

Barker is 19, is over 6 feet tall, and tips the scales at 200 pounds. The Goodwood (near Uxbridge) native was acquired from the Toronto Patriots at the deadline, where he scored 20 points in 25 games. Barker earned an assist in his first game as a Duke on Sunday as well as six minutes in penalties—the first coming 26 seconds into the game.

Rumolo has played on four teams this season. The 20-year-old defenceman hails from Brooklin, Ontario and has amassed 15 points in 38 games.

Hayden Pimm has moved closer to home, joining the Campbell River Storm on Vancouver Island. Logan Goodwin has moved to Melville, Saskatchewan, and Mason Goodfellow has gone home.

DUKES 8 – AURORA 1
Ryan Schaap scored a hat trick to lead his team to rout the visiting Aurora Tigers on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers were never in this game. By the end of the first period, the Dukes were leading 4-0, but even more telling was the shot total. Dukes outshot Aurora 23 to five in the first frame. Recalling the game now, it is hard to pinpoint when the Tigers managed even these five shots. Virtually all of the action was deep in the Tigers zone.

The Dukes simply outworked, out hustled and outplayed Aurora along the wall and down low.

Cory Jewitt’s low shot from the top of the slot found its way through traffic and into the net. Zach Carrier scored his first goal of the season. Schaap scored twice before the period was done.

Caleb MacDonald and Sacha Trudel added goals in the second. The Tigers managed to get one by Shane Shelest midway through the frame.

Schaap and Jewitt added a couple more in the third.

The only worrying bit: the Dukes were penalized seven times. The good bit: Wellington had six power play opportunities and scored on three.

UP NEXT: LINDSAY AND COBOURG
The rink in Lindsay is cold and inhospitable to the Dukes in January. Nevertheless, the team will travel to the Kawartha hub on Friday night. The Muskies get a healthy crowd of 280 who come out to cheer on their team—so the sheer number of bodies may bring some warmth to the rink.

The Dukes have played Lindsay just once this season—winning the game 2-1. The Muskies are a middle-of-the-conference team with 20 wins in 38 games. Lindsay has won just one game in four starts in 2024—its only win coming against Pickering. The fish, coming into Friday’s game, have lost three in a row, including a 6-0 drubbing by Leamington.

On Sunday, the Dukes welcome the Cobourg Cougars. Cobourg has won four of its last five games. Head-to-head, each team has won a game—each at home. Both games were decided by a single goal. Cobourg has a bit better-winning percentage than the Dukes—but have played five fewer games.