Moving on up

Captain Pierce leads the way in surging Dukes

On the back of a three-game winning streak, the Wellington Dukes moved into a share of second place in the East Division. Two of the victories came at the hands of the team they supplanted— the Haliburton County Huskies.

The Dukes now sit just seven points behind the East-leading Trenton Golden Hawks. Wellington has a game in hand. That game will come soon enough—as the torrid post-Covid shutdown races to the April 3 deadline.

This week they face another four games in six days beginning tonight in North York. Then the Dukes are home for a stretch of four games including a key match-up with Trenton on Friday.

Emmet Pierce has been on a tear since returning from the Covid break—with 11 points over the past five games including 5 goals. The Dukes captain scored a hat trick in a romp over the Toronto Patriots on Sunday.

David Campbell is right behind with nine points—including four goals. Jacob Vreugdenhil is right there too—with 8 points and three goals in five games.

Notably, the Dukes are an extremely disciplined team this season with the fewest penalty minutes in the OJHL—by a wide margin. But they’ve done while maintaining a gritty, physical edge to their game. One can see opposing teams visibly stiffen when Mason Reeves’s line steps onto the ice.

DUKES 2 – HUSKIES 1
The Dukes played the Haliburton County Huskies close for two periods at home— each team trading a goal in the first and second periods. In the third, newly acquired defenceman Creo Solomon snuck down from the blue line, where Captain Pierce hit him with a tape-to-tape pass from the opposite corner. The Dukes held the Huskies off for the remainder of the game for the win.

Thursday’s match in Caledon was postponed due to the snowstorm that filled in the County on Friday—and then swept across exposed north-south roads on Saturday.

DUKES 3 – HUSKIES 2 OT
Despite the tricky exit from the County, the Dukes bus managed to navigate the drifts and landed in Minden for a rematch with the Huskies. The game was another defensive struggle, nevertheless, the Dukes mounted a two-goal lead early in the first with markers from Ethan Esposito and Vreugdenhil.

The Huskies cut the lead in half before the end of the first. The action went back and forth for two periods until the very last second of the game. That is when the Huskies—with the extraattacker— swarmed Ethan Morrow and the Dukes’ defenders in the dying minutes. The puck slid underneath Morrow just before the buzzer sounded.

In the overtime period, the Dukes set to work early—led again by their captain. Just 90 seconds elapsed when Jonathan Balah fed Pierce. To the net. A move. Shot. Goal. Win.

In one move the Pierce lifted his team to its third win in three games and a share of second place—in the rink of the team they ousted.

DUKES 8 – PATRIOTS 2
On Sunday the Dukes romped all over the Toronto Patriots. The industrial warehousebound Patriots have been flailing since the return to action—six of their seven starts. The Dukes only added to the pain—scoring six unanswered goals by the mid-point of the game. The Patriots responded with a goal late in the second and one in the third—but each time the Dukes responded with a goal to keep the margin at six. Captain Pierce earned the hat-trick while Campbell, Vreugdenhil, Barret Joynt, Esposito, and Corbin Roach each tallied for Wellington.

UP NEXT: NORTH YORK, TRENTON, COBOURG, AND ST MIKES
The Dukes are on the road today headed to Finch and Bathurst to take on the North York Rangers. The Dukes defeated the Rangers on February 11 in their first home game back from the Covid-dark time. North York, first in the South Division, has won three of four since then—its only loss coming at the hands of the Golden Hawks.

On Friday the Dukes kick off a four-game homestand welcoming the East-leading Golden Hawks. Cobourg is in Wellington on Sunday for a 2:30 start. And on Tuesday night, St. Michaels visits the coolest spot when the weather’s hot. The Buzzers have won seven of nine since returning to action earlier this month. One of their two losses came at the hands of the Dukes in the second overtime period on February 4.