Powering through

Dukes currently ranked 7th in the nation

It is unseemly to criticize refereeing. In any sport. At any level. Referees are human arbiters, doing their best. Yet it is precisely their human frailty that allows some to get caught up in the emotion of the game—rather than serving as ruthlessly objective play callers.

Dukes netminder Matt Keeley jumps on the loose puck on Friday night as the Dukes defeated the Whitby Fury 7-3. Keeley’s record improved to 11 wins and one loss.

Now the following comments require some important caveats: The Wellington Dukes struggle with discipline. They have done so for a few years now. The Dukes once again lead the league in penalty minutes— 62 more penalty minutes than their next closest competitor in this dubious category. Wellington also leads the league in points, so it is difficult to criticize success, yet it seems a flimsy torch to hold up high.

Furthermore, way too many of the Dukes’ penalties are for talking. It is one thing to play a physical game and to be tagged for being a bit too aggressive in the heat of battle. It is another thing altogether to continue to collect a pile of 10-minute major penalties for sharing your views of the officiating, with the officiating crew, after the whistle has blown. The humans in the striped shirts tend to remember such viewpoints. And it should not surprise anyone that it might colour their view even before the puck is dropped to start the game.

There is one other point that must be made in this straggly preamble, and that is that teams are comprised of 16 to 20-year olds who have not all learned to harness their emotions. Some have never been asked to, or expected to. So when the Dukes jump out to a 5-1 lead, built on two shorthanded goals, it really behooves the refereeing corps to corral the opposing team’s heavies, especially those who only get ice time when the game is out of reach.

So it was that the referees, in Thursday’s game in Wellington, gifted Pickering with seven power play opportunities. Zero to Wellington. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that the Dukes had to score a couple of goals shorthanded, because it wasn’t obvious, they would be playing any other way in this lop-sided affair. After the refs had assessed infractions against six different Dukes, they penalized and suspended the coach.

Dukes head coach Derek Smith does not wear his emotions on the surface. He is neither flamboyant nor outspoken. When he speaks, he typically has something important to say—and a profound justification for saying it.

It is not clear there is a good remedy. A bit more distribution of the reffing corps, perhaps? A bit more training on game management? Or maybe just more review of games like the one in Wellington last week, with a more humble attitude and desire to do better.

To restate, the Dukes wear responsibility for their conduct, and thus far they haven’t paid a meaningful price in the win/loss column. That may change when the playoff race begins in earnest in the new year.

But for the safety of all the players in this game, the officiating needs to improve.

WELLINGTON 6 – PICKERING 2
Despite the hobbling effect of frequently playing shorthanded, Wellington racked up three more wins last week, extending their unbeaten streak to 16 games.

Matt Dunsmoor tossed away a torrent of shots in the early going, while the Dukes compiled a three-goal lead before the first intermission. Goals from Frank Vitucci (shorthanded), Daniel Panetta and Quinn Hanna staked the Dukes’ first period advantage.

The Panthers finally got on the board midway through the second. But the Dukes’ Jacob Vreugdenhil tallied another shorthanded goal in the third, snuffing out any Pickering rebound thoughts. Ben Addison added another midway through the final period. A power play goal by Pickering late in the period served only to sour the Dukes on the officiating. More penalties. Nevertheless, Brian Bygrave scored in the dying minutes—his second goal in as many games. Indeed, his first two goals in the OJHL.

Whitby goalie Connor McKenzie can only look back in desperation as Daniel Panetta’s shot bounced off a Fury skate and into the net.

WELLINGTON 7 – WHITBY 3
With Coach Derek Smith suspended for a game, the Dukes’ coaching duties shifted to Rob Ridgely and Sean Turner on Friday night. Despite a raucous fight-filled game a week earlier in Whitby, the Fury came to play hockey.

An ugly power play goal jumpstarted the Whitby wagon in the first minute of the game. Vitucci responded with a goal, but before the period was over the Fury had scored again to lead the game 2-1 going into the second period.

The Dukes found another gear. It turns out Ben Woodhouse had it all along. Fortyeight seconds into the period, Woodhouse spotted Brett Humberstone sneaking in from the blueline. Woodhouse pass to the far side. Onto Humberstone’s stick. Redirect into a wide-open net. Tie game.

Midway through the period, Daniel Panetta scored shorthanded. Backbreaker. Woodhouse scored two more times in the next three minutes to cement the lead. Whitby scored on a nice move to beat Matt Keeley in the Dukes net late in the second, but the outcome of this game was already conceded by this point. The Dukes added two more in the third, a hat-trick goal from Woodhouse and Vitucci’s second of the game.

WELLINGTON 7 – NORTH YORK 2
On Sunday, the Dukes headed to the Herb Carnegie Arena at Finch and Bathurst in Toronto. According to Craig Foster, 99.3 County FM’s playby- play announcer, the trip was pocked by engine overheating and some unsettled stomachs among the Dukes players.

Despite these road woes, the Dukes wasted little time settling affairs on the ice. Barret Joynt got things started by digging the puck out of the corner, firing on net, and then digging out the puck in the scramble before burying it. The floodgates opened. Ryan Smith scored in the shortly after Joynt’s opener and again in the second. Frank Vitucci and Jacob Breckles scored 30 seconds apart, just two minutes after Smith had made it 3-0. Jake Gagnon, stopped by a pair of goalposts earlier in the game, potted his league-leading 25th goal of the season on the power play.

North York managed to beat Dunsmoor once in the second and again early in the third, but Woodhouse scored shortly thereafter, restoring the five-goal lead and cementing the victory.

The Dukes’ winning streak coincides neatly with Vitucci’s scoring production. In sixteen games, Vittucci has 22 points, including 13 goals—two of which were tallied while shorthanded.

UP NEXT: COBOURG AND AURORA
The Cougars of Cobourg are a better team than their .380 winning percentage would suggest. They are positively dreadful at home—winning just two games outright in the Cobourg Community Centre. Fortunately for them, the Cougars are in Wellington on Friday night.

Cobourg has won only two game in their last five—the only wins coming against Lindsay and Buffalo. Dershahn Stewart has been good in the Cobourg net, but the offensive production in front of him has been thin.

Aurora, once a perennial contender in the OJHL, has mustered just four wins so far in 27 games— halfway through a dismal season. Like the Cougars, the 2019 Tigers lack a consistent offensive punch, but unlike the Cougars, their defence—at least as measured by goals against average—is poor, allowing more than four goals per game.

Both games are at home this weekend. Cobourg visits Wellington on Friday at 7:30. Aurora and the Dukes face-off at 2:30 on Sunday.