Intense heat in August

The Dukes’ Rich Stethem (on ice) struggles to tee up the puck for a shot by his defenceman on Sunday in Trenton.

Trenton hands Dukes first loss in two pre-seasons

The rivalry is back. If Sunday’s pre-season tilt offers any single insight, it is that the Trenton Golden Hawks will be a big strong team this season and the Wellington Dukes are going to have their hands full in each and every meeting.

For years now, Trenton fans have endured poor teams—perennially in the bottom half of the standings and typically being swept in the first round by the Dukes. It wasn’t always the case. The rivalry between Trenton and Wellington was once intense—and filled rinks on both sides of the Bay of Quinte.

Now Jerome Dupont and his team are running the organization in Trenton. It is as if the owners of the team have determined they go all-in this season to produce a winner- to try and win back the Quinte West fan base.

The early signs are good.

Despite a final score of 5-2, Sunday’s match in Trenton was a closely fought and intense affair. It is too bad just a few hundred fans were there to watch the game—half seemingly from Wellington.

With the exception of netminder Spencer Finney and forwards Brandon O’Quinn and Tyler Donaldson, every other face is new to Trenton. Just like the Aurora teams under Dupont, the team is physically big and mobile.

The Dukes, meanwhile, have size and grit, but their main weapon is still speed.

The Golden Hawks pushed hard in the early going under intense prodding by their coach. But the visiting Dukes largely resisted the surge. Then, midway through the first, a clumsy goal crease clearing attempt ended up behind Charlie Graham in net for the Dukes.

The action continued up and down the ice. Darcy Murphy and Cam Yuill’s line in particular caused Trenton’s blueliners grief— nearly forcing a couple of turnovers deep in the Golden Hawks’ zone.

In the second the to-and-fro action continued with each side creating scoring chances, but after 40 minutes, Trenton still clung to its one-goal lead.

Early in the third a momentary lapse proved costly. Trenton’s Spencer McCormack, six foot 200-pound second leading top scorer for the Elmira Sugar Kings last season, carved around the Wellington defencemen toward the net—sweeping the puck underneath Andrew Pearson’s pads.

Darcy Murphy celebrates one of two goals on Friday night in the Dukes win over Peterborough at home.

The Dukes continued to push for a break and nearly got one as Jeff Stanton rang the post.

But then another flukey goal put the Golden Hawks up 3-0. A shot on net from a sharp angle managed to slip through three bodies splayed in the crease to an open wing where Trenton’s Kent McPherson was presented with the gift. He simply potted the puck into the yawning net.

The Dukes got a fluke of their own moments later when the puck took an odd bounce off the gate behind the net surprising the Trenton netminder who had gone behind the net to stop it. The puck bounced into the crease. Rich Stethem tapped in the puck for the Dukes’ first goal.

On the scoreboard the Dukes found fresh legs—pushing the exhausted Golden Hawks into their own end. Moving the puck well in the offensive zone the Dukes teed up Brendon Barletta at the point. His blast sailed through the Golden Hawks and into the net.

Wellington pulled netminder Andrew Pearson in the dying minutes but the attempt fizzled before it got started. Before Pearson was on the bench the Dukes had turned over the puck in the neutral zone and the puck was in the empty net.

Trenton potted yet another empty netter for a final score of 5-2.

It was, for all those in the rink on Sunday, an entertaining one-goal game that could have gone either way. It sets up another match this Friday as Jerome Dupont’s Golden Hawks make their first visit to Wellington.

DUKES 7 — PETERBOROUGH 5
On Monday night the Dukes downed the Peterborough Stars for the second time in the pre-season. The Dukes had plenty of holes in the lineup as a number of players expected to play on this year’s squad are skating with OHL clubs this week.

Darcy Murphy potted a hat trick plus—adding four goals on Monday night. The hard driving forward is setting a torrid pace so far early this season. In four games Murphy has scored eight goals. Talented centreman Craig Campbell earned four points in the game (3 assists and a goal). Jeff Stanton is having a good pre- season as well—scoring once and assisting on three others. Andrew Pearson shared netminding duties with Marc Nother in his first stint in net for the Dukes.

UP NEXT: TRENTON
It seems only appropriate that Wellington hosts Trenton for its final pre-season game this Friday night. The Dukes will be looking to avenge their only loss in the exhibition season. The two teams won’t meet again until the end of September.

Expect a good crowd to come out and see if the Golden Hawks are for real. It will be the last time most fans will see the Dukes again until the home opener in mid-September.

BACK IN MID-SEPTEMBER
Immediately after the game on Friday night the Dukes will be nestled into the bus for an 11-hour journey to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. There the Dukes will participate in a weekend tournament with teams from the NOJHL, the NAHL and the OJHL.

Craig Campbell gets squeezed into the boards. Campbell leads his team in assists with five so far in the pre-season.

They players will return home for few days, then get back on the bus for the Woodchuck Classic tournament in Burlington, Vermont. This tournament features teams and scouts from the U.S. Northeast as well as Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

When they return from Vermont the Dukes will begin preparing for their home opener as they welcome the Cobourg Cougars to Wellington on Friday, September 16.