Erick Delaurentis continues to march up the scoring ranks. The crafty and gritty forward leads his team with 28 points, including 12 goals. Delaurentis is ranked fourth overall in the OJHL, but has played fewer games than those above him in scoring leader standings.

Dukes split weekend games after facing a hot goalie at St. Mikes

If the Dukes’ game plan is to put pucks on net—and of course it is—then the Wellington squad is working like a finely tuned machine. In two games on the weekend the Dukes pounded opposing netminders with a total of 113 shots—an average of 56 shots per game. In fact the Dukes lead the OJHL in shots on net averaging 41 shots per game through 18 games so far this season. The Dukes are third best in the OJHL for converting its shots into goals.

But sometimes no matter how many shots are directed to the net—a goalie comes up with a career performance and steals a win for his team. That is what happened in Toronto on Friday night.

ST. MIKES 4 – DUKES 2
The Wellington Dukes travelled to St. Michael’s for the second game with the Buzzers in just over a week. The Dukes came out flying, outshooting the host team 14-7 in the first period. But by end of the first—St. Mikes had three goals the Dukes had none.

The first was a tough one to give up. The Dukes had valiantly kept the Buzzers at bay during a long two-man disadvantage. Erick Delourentis had just stepped back on the ice from the penalty box when St. Mikes scored.

But the story of the game was George Agriropoulos. The Buzzer’s netminder was on his game. Argiropoulos is a streaky goaltender—either playing very well or rather poorly. This may explain why St. Mikes has rotated several netminders to back up their number one.

Friday was a good night for Argiropoulos. Having built up a three-goal lead, the highly disciplined Buzzers settled into a tight defensive posture—not allowing Dukes forwards to carry the puck into their zone and clearing the puck promptly. Still the Dukes shot machine kept firing.

Young Maurizio Collella scored his first goal in junior hockey on nifty play that illustrated why the 16-year-old forward is so highly regarded around the league. Kyle Paat’s goal on the power play edged the Dukes closer. But a late St. Mikes goal in the second period re-established the two-goal lead.

Adam Wood seemed headed toward a shutout until the third period when Pickering scored twice within one minute. Oddly enough the Dukes’ Erick Delaurentis managed to score in the 55 seconds between Pickering goals

Undaunted, the Dukes pushed even harder in the third, shelling Argiropoulos with 21 shots in the final period—more than double the Buzzers shot count. But nothing beat him. The Dukes came home with just their fourth loss this season.

DUKES 6 – PICKERING 2
On Sunday it was time for them to fix the record on two counts. The visiting Pickering Panthers had handed the Dukes only their second loss early in the season. Sunday’s game marked the first opportunity to correct that. The Dukes also needed to shake off the Friday night loss. Wellington isn’t used to losing and it isn’t habit they are keen to form.

They were without the services of forwards Mike Soucier and Abbott Girduckis who are in Oakville this week, working for a spot on the roster of Team Canada East in the World Junior A Challenge to be held Yarmouth next month.

In their absence Trevor Cope stepped into the spotlight—scoring twice and assisting on three others—as the Dukes trounced the Panthers 6-2.

Once again the Dukes dominated the shot clock, firing 45 shots on net by the end of the second period. Cope’s linemate, Delaurentis scored one and earned assists on three others. Steven Deeg, Andrew McCann and Andrew Coupland rounded out the scoring. Notably young defender Trevor Abbott earned three assists in the win.

Andrew McCann had a particularly strong game— bulling through the Pickering defence and forcing his opponents to take penalties.

NOVEMBER LULL
After a hectic September and October, the Dukes have hit the thin part of the schedule with just a single game on each of the next three weekends.

This week the Dukes host Cobourg.

Andrew McCann was a hard nosed bulldog on the ice for the Dukes on Sunday night—at one point pushing through three defenders–emerging on the other side, still with the puck and just missing on a great scoring chance.

$5 FOR STUDENTS
Beginning this Friday, November 1, ticket prices for Dukes home games have been reduced to just $5 for secondary students attending Hastings and Prince Edward Secondary Schools. To purchase your ticket just show your student ID card.

COBOURG COUGARS ARE HERE FRIDAY

The Wellington Dukes and Cobourg Cougars both play in the East Division of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, along with the Kingston Voyageurs, Trenton Golden Hawks and Whitby Fury. The standings after games played on Monday night show the Fury with a .605 winning percentage and in last place in the division. That record would be good enough for first place in the North Division, second place in the West Division and third place in the South Division.

The Dukes and Cougars have met once earlier this season, when Wellington pulled out a 4 to 3 win in a shootout at the Cobourg arena on September 30. Starting in the 1997-98 season, the Dukes have had 16 consecutive regular seasons without a losing record. Over that same time frame, the Cougars have had nine seasons of playing .500 hockey or better with their all-time franchise high being just two years ago when they finished with 77 points. However, after receiving a first round playoff bye, they were upset in five games by Whitby, which was coached by the Cougars current bench boss, Curtis Hodgins.

Coach Hodgins moved to Cobourg last season where the team finished below the .500 mark and finished in the last spot to qualify for the playoffs, 8th, but then upset number one seed Trenton in a four game sweep.

Cobourg players to look out for are number 22, Connor Armour, who leads the team in points and number 5, Alex D’Oliveira, their top offensive defenseman. Nathan Perry and Mathieu Ouellet have been sharing net duties and both have impressive numbers.