Regaining their feet

Dukes struggle to grasp home-ice advantage

Steve Evans carves through a maze of Peterborough players to get a shot on net.

Wellington’s grip on first place in the East Division of the OJHL became a little more fragile on Friday as the Dukes were dumped by the second-place Peterborough Stars at home. It was the Dukes’ third loss in four home games since moving to the larger ice surface of the Essroc Arena.

Scoring goals at will has not been in the Dukes’ arsenal this season; goals-for numbers have the Dukes languishing in the middle of the pack. This weakness was made evident on Friday as the Dukes outshot the Stars through most of the game but still lost by a humiliating score of 6-1.

Rather, the Dukes’ strength this season has been in their own end, starting with normally rock-steady netminding from the best goalie in the league, Jordan Ruby. A team focus on defence has contributed to the second-lowest goals-against average in the entire OJHL.

But since moving to the larger ice surface at the Wellington and District Community Centre, the Dukes have struggled to contain their opponents. Worse, Ruby has looked like an ordinary netminder since the break—and the Dukes’ prospects will dim considerably if he remains an ordinary goalie.

Ruby was recognized as the best player for the OJHL in December, helping propel the Dukes to a 6-1 record for the month. He owns the league’s second-best goals-against average with a miserly 2.05 goals per game.

If Ruby can regain his footing (and the betting is that he will), if his teammates begin to gather confidence in their own rink, avoiding passes into each others’ skates, and if they can eliminate the mental errors that have plagued the team in the new year, the Dukes will be fine. They will, however, have to play the games to find out.

SEEING STARS

Joe Zarbo continued to show a hot hand, scoring a hat trick on Sunday, leading his team to a 6-2 victory over the Trenton Golden Hawks.

The Dukes were eager for the win on Friday night. A sound drubbing of the Stars would have gone some way in easing the sting of losing to Kingston a week earlier. Wellington was missing spark plug Simon Bessette but had recently bolstered it’s lineup with a forward (Braden Kavaratzis), a defenceman (Elliott Richardson) and a backup netminder (Craig Rylett).

For the first 10 minutes the game plan was unfolding for the Dukes as was planned.

Five minutes in, on a power play, Darcy Murphy bulled his way down the wing, swinging toward the net and firing a shot. Gathering his own rebound he fired high short-side to give his team the lead.

But the Dukes unravelled soon after. The Stars were able to get the Dukes running around in their own end, freeing up Joe Sullivan in the slot. His hard one-timer sailed past Ruby. Then, in a textbook play, Joe Swift tipped in an Alex Derlis pass at speed through Ruby’s pads.

The second period was worse. The Stars erupted for three more goals. Ruby was pulled in favour of Rylett. But the bleeding continued. Peterborough scored two more in the third, squashing any Dukes’ consideration of a comeback bid.

It was the widest margin of loss for the Dukes all season, save for Nov. 2, when the Stars beat the Dukes by the same 6-1 score.

GROUNDING THE GOLDEN HAWKS

The loss on Friday upped the stakes considerably for the match against Trenton on Sunday.

The Golden Hawks seem resigned to running out the string and likely missing the playoffs. But partly because of this, Trenton remains a dangerous team. With nothing left to lose they are more relaxed and opportunities to knock off the division leader come with their own incentive. The remaining core on the Trenton squad are big, strong and experienced players.

The Dukes knew this would not be a walk in the park. Being big and careless, however, often leads to penalties in this league. The Golden Hawks are among the most penalized teams in the OJHL. They have earned more than double the amount of penalty minutes than the Dukes. So it was that the Dukes earned a two-man advantage midway through the first. The Dukes’ Sean Rudy put the puck on net; Joe Zarbo picked up the rebound for his first of three in the game.

Jordan Ruby and winger Brian Bunnett keep a close eye on the bouncing puck.

Late in the first, on another power play, Steve Evans picked up his own rebound and lifted it over the netminder.

In the second period, Zarbo blocked a shot from the point in his own end. This released the Dukes on a three-on-one opportunity. Using his linemates as decoys, Zarbo deked the Trenton netminder out of his skates before sliding the puck around and behind the frozen goalie.

Trenton scored late in the period to end Ruby’s shutout bid. The Dukes responded with three more goals; plus a bonus pair of goals disallowed by the referees. The Golden Hawks added another late in the third to take some of the air out of the Dukes celebration.

The hometown squad skated off the ice more relieved than celebratory.

The win, according to David Brown, team statistician, was the Dukes’ 30th of the season and extends their Junior ‘A’ record for all Ontariobased leagues to 12 consecutive years of reaching the 30-plus win mark.

UP NEXT: COBOURG AND KINGSTON

Two more big tests face the Dukes this weekend. Cobourg, fresh off their victory over the resurging Whitby Fury, will be in Wellington Friday. Cobourg is in third place in the east, just one point back of the Stars.

Since they lost to Wellington over a week ago the Cougars have put together a tidy three-game winning streak including a decisive defeat of the Voyageurs in Kingston— their second win in as many games against the Vees.

Blake Sexton leads all point getters in the Cougars’ lineup. Veteran netminder Mathieu Cadieux has been solid and Christopher Lyons has been strong in relief. Wellington has had success in three previous meetings with the Cougars, winning two and losing the third in overtime.

But Cobourg, like all East Division contenders, is pinning its dreams of first place on beating the Dukes in Wellington.

Kingston has struggled with consistency this season but most observers calculate the Voyageurs are biding their time until the playoffs arrive. It’s possible, however, that the Vees are not so much a team, as a collection of hired talent.

Whatever they are the Voyageurs will be keen to tangle with the Dukes for a second time in as many weeks when they come to Wellington on Sunday.