Moving feet

The Dukes’ relentless speed and aggressive forechecking provide the advantage in the semis

The Dukes have taken a firm grip on another playoff series—leading Haliburton County three games to none in the OJHL South/East Semi-finals. After two comeback wins in the first pair of games, the Dukes demolished the defensively-minded Huskies in game three in Wellington on Monday.

GAME THREE
Three shots. Three Dukes goals. Lucas La- Palm, David Campbell, and Jacob Vreugdenhil. The Huskies pulled one of the best netminders in the league for another good one. It made no difference. Edward Moskowitz scored on the next shot. 4-0 by the end of the period.

Then the dagger. The Huskies were on the power play. Pressing hard for a goal. For respectability. It was a long drive down from Minden. For this?

Barrett Joynt was on fire on Monday. He ripped the puck loose in his own zone and bulldozed down the wing, forcing a lane to the net. Shot. Rebound. Lucas Lapalm buried his shot into the gaping net. Shorthanded.

Without recourse on the scoresheet, the Huskies turned to violence for redemption. Slashing. Slashing and more slashing. Seven slashing penalties in total. A couple of inciting majors.

So began a steady procession to the penalty box for Haliburton County. Two more power play goals. Joynt and Matheson Mason. An even-strength goal. It was 8-0 Dukes with 24 minutes left to play in the game.

The Dukes slipped into shutdown mode, and Jacob Osborne carried them the rest of the way. Osborne earned the first star of the game—though Joynt was the engine that drove the Dukes bus on Monday with two goals and an assist, a couple of missed breakaways and winning the battles along the wall.

GAME TWO
This was the second game the Dukes had to climb out of a hole. In Minden, the Huskies scored twice in the early going—one on the power play. Lucas Strickland, however, got one back a couple of moments later. Then Haliburton scored another power play goal.

Midway through the second, Corbin Roach and Jared Langdon set up defenceman Jacob Dietz’s first goal of the playoffs, narrowing the Huskies’ lead to a single goal. And that is where the game stayed until midway through the final frame. Lucas Strickland from Ryan Cutler and Dietz to tie the game. Then Wellington’s Edward Moskowitz scored, giving his team the lead for the first time. The Dukes skated home with the 4-3 win.

GAME ONE
This was a seesaw battle—as often playoff games can be. Both teams were probing the fringe, looking for weakness. It was LaPalm who scored first. But then the Huskies on the power play. Midway through the second, the Huskies took the lead. Again on the power play.

But Julien Jacob scored his own power play goal early in the third to tie the game again. Forty-five seconds later, Nolan Mozer gave the Dukes the lead. Strickland added an empty-net goal to seal the home victory.

STANDOUTS
It has been a complete team response in the playoffs this year—so it is unwise to highlight specific performances, but two stand out. Jacob Dietz generated five points in the first two games of the Huskies series—and earned plenty of chances on Monday.

Barrett Joynt is as much a threat without the puck as he is with it. When he is on the ice, the opposing puck carrier looks like a newborn wildebeest on the Serengeti—all wobbly and vulnerable. It is apparent to any observer that this scene will end in sadness—and Joynt with the puck.

UPSET?
The Trenton Golden Hawks are mounting an upsetin- the-making against the powerful Toronto Junior Canadiens. Toronto led the OJHL all season long—was ranked among the best teams in the country.

But the Golden Hawks loaded up in January and added some GOJHL stars whose teams have been eliminated from the playoffs. After a pair of one-goal squeakers, the Golden Hawks downed the Junior Canadiens 7-4 on Sunday.

Game four was Tuesday night, after the Times deadline.

UP NEXT: HUSKIES SERIES CONTINUES
The Dukes travel to Minden on Thursday for game four. Game five—if needed—will be back in Wellington on Friday night.