New month, new Dukes

Wellington bolsters blue line, sweeps up Buzzers and Blueshirts

After closing out October with a 1-2-1 record, the Wellington Dukes were more than happy to turn the calendar to November and find some success.

The Dukes kicked off the month with a 5-0 whitewash of the visiting St. Mike’s Buzzers Friday and followed that effort up with a gritty, come-from-behind overtime win in North York on Sunday.

The wins moved Wellington’s record to 13-6-3, which leaves them safely in third place in the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s East Conference. The locals trail Cobourg by two and are ahead of fourthplace Newmarket by a half-dozen points.

In addition to a pair of wins, Wellington picked up a pair of defencemen.

Cole Ellis, a starry defender who put up 34 points in 54 games last season for Wellington, is back from a sojourn in Vernon and the British Columbia Hockey League. The Chapleau, Ontario, native picked up a point on his third shift of the game Friday, helping Landon Marleau score his teamand league-leading 19th goal early in Wellington’s blanking of the Buzz.

Ellis was in the Wellington lineup for the first time this season, as was fellow blueliner Lucas Hill. The Dukes picked up the Courtice, Ontario, native, who has eight points in 19 games for the last-place Toronto Warriors.

In exchange, the Dukes let go of Zach Mascard. The gritty playmaker winds up in Stouffville after a three-way deal with Toronto.

Meanwhile, Jayden Lesvesque’s emergence after an early-season injury might have also forced Panetta’s hand. Lesvesque has 25 helpers in 20 games.

In the span of a week, Wellington greatly improved its blueline and thinned out its depth up front. Time will judge if that was the right play

BUZZING
Wellington got straight to work Friday night and had a 3-0 lead early. Marleau, Sammy Longo and Cooper Woron all counted in the opening 12 minutes, and the game was mostly out of reach for the visitors. We say mostly because Wellington was more than guilty of complacency in the second. While the Buzzers might have had just eight shots in the middle frame, they had as many good scoring chances.

Wellington starter Dryden Riley had to be sharp more than a few times in the second.

But Wellington was sharp with twigs in the middle stanza.

Blake Berthiaume dazzled with a 2-on-1 shorthanded keep-and-shoot at 12:19.

Zach Anderson bagged his sixth of the year in the final minute of the second whilst on a power play.

Anderson banked it off the opposing netminder’s mask with 23 seconds left. Riley kicked out 27 Buzzer blasts for his second OJHL shutout.

ONE MORE TIME
On Sunday, Berthiaume tallied his second shorthanded goal of the weekend. The latter deserves a little more ink than the former.

After Marleau tied it with his 21st off a powerplay drive midway through the third, Wellington’s chips were down in number in overtime.

Marco Wolf was forced to foul a would-be Rangers goal scorer in the slot while the teams were 3-on-3. Wellington had killed most of the North York power play when Berthiaume turned in a yeoman’s effort on the boards in the visitors’ end, emerging from the scrum with the puck.

Rookie defenceman Gavin Godick sprang from his check and streaked ahead. Berthiaume hit his teammate in stride.

Godick gained the Rangers’ blue line and threaded a perfect pass back to Berthiaume. The goal scorer called “Game!” by going high blocker at 3:15 of the extra session.

UP NEXT
Wellington stays busy this weekend. On Friday, the team skates into Belleville for the first time in many moons to battle the Bay of Quinte archrival Trenton Golden Hawks as part of the Belleville Senators’ inaugural Hockey Weekend in Quinte.

The following day, Wellington’s in Newmarket to take on the Hurricanes.

The locals return home to the Dukedome on Sunday night to play the Toronto Warriors. Puck drop is 7 p.m.

THANK YOU, BETTY
“Do you want to see the man in charge or talk to the woman who knows what’s going on?” In the realm of this beloved franchise, who else could that be other than Betty Masterson?

Full confession—I sometimes don’t stick around for the bitter ends of these games. After a full night in Picton on Thursday, where Betty would also be found when her son Chris was the general manager, I’d crack, “I’ll have to read about this one in the paper!” before making tracks eastbound, late into the Friday night darkness.

But never, ever without a stop to see Betty at the box office. She was a reporter’s dream. New player in town? Player on the way up or down? Or out? What’s the temperature in the dressing room? That one could be either figurative or literal. If the dressing room heater was on the fritz, Betty knew it before teeth started to chatter. She was a Duke through and through. Supported every player who came here and wore her heart on her sleeve from August training camps to May national tournaments.

There were a few of those—Charlottetown and Chilliwack and Camrose in between. Probably a few more if only the coach would have listened to her.

Like every single person who sticks around junior hockey for too long, it’s because you love something. Probably too much. That something can never love you back, and that’s okay. It’s the shared experience of unbridled joy that keeps you turning up at the rink in late summer after a sensationally short-and-sweet offseason.

Wellington’s shared experience in supporting the Dukes from one side of Canada to the other is something that defies definition for me. I don’t have the words.

But I know this. Our experience with this Junior A hockey franchise was made better because of people like Betty Masterson.