Showcase

Dukes and Kingston to be featured in national broadcast on Saturday afternoon

Largely overlooked by folks outside of their hometown, Tier 2 Junior hockey, outside of the championship game, doesn’t often get an opportunity to present itself to a national audience. That changed this season when the OJHL teamed up with broadcaster CHCH in order to showcase the league, and its talent, in a Game of the Week.

This week’s game comes from Wellington and will be broadcast across the country.

To accommodate the broadcast slot, the Wellington Dukes and the Kingston Voyageurs have scheduled their sixth and final meeting this season, for 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

In this photo from last month, the Dukes’ Ben Woodhouse is tangled with Lindsay’s Brandon Carr Ansah and Matt King. Carr Ansah was subsequently traded to Georgetown.

The production of some earlier games was a bit wobbly, but last Saturday’s match featuring the Oakville Blades and the Burlington Cougars was a top-notch and exciting game, well presented. The only negative was the number of empty seats in the Oakville rink. A situation unlikely to be repeated in Wellington on Saturday.

After some missteps this season, the OJHL has found an important new way to market junior hockey.

DUKES 4 – LINDSAY 0
The Dukes had just a single competition on the weekend. They quelled the Muskies in Lindsay on Friday night. The Muskies started strong enough, largely skating with the Dukes through the first period. But even by this generous account, they gave up three goals—one each from Elijah Gonzalves, Dawson Ellis and Andrew Rinaldi. Three lines. Three goals. Another Dukes’ goal was waved off.

That was the game. The Muskies were done— managing just 10 shots on Logan Bateman over the next two periods, none a serious threat. A new netminder came in for Lindsay and played gamely in periods two and three. But his linemates were no longer interested in the scoreboard, and, as such, began a procession to the penalty box.

In the middle of the third, with a two-man advantage, Dukes defenceman Zach Uens rifled a shot from the high slot.

Lindsay netminder Dean Buchholz allowed three goals in the first period against the Dukes on Friday night. He was replaced in the second.

In the third, the Muskies were preoccupied with sending a message in this the final meeting between the East Division teams this season. The Muskies earned a pair of suspensions, including one for their coach. A benchmark that was matched in Lindsay’s 11-2 shellacking at the hands of the Trenton Golden Hawks two days later.

The Dukes came home from Lindsay with two more points. And only six more games left in the regular season.

UP NEXT: KINGSTON AND TRENTON
Who knows which Kingston team will show up on Saturday? There is talent on this young team, but the Voyageurs’ chances of progressing to the playoffs are dimming dramatically with each passing game. It likely doesn’t help that the future of the franchise remains the subject of ongoing speculation.

Pride is an unpredictable ingredient. There remains a core of skilled players in Kingston who may respond to such gloomy circumstances. There is also the wild card of playing before a national television audience.

The Dukes will need to be ready to play on Saturday.

On Sunday the Dukes host another afternoon game, at 1:30, as they welcome the Trenton Golden Hawks for the final time in this regular season. Just five points separate the second-place Golden Hawks from the fourth place Dukes. There is still room to jostle for position in the playoff rankings.

A first round match-up with Trenton seems unlikely—though that would be fun.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Napanee native Darcy Murphy scored with two minutes remaining in the game to lift his team, the Belfast Giants of the Elite League in the United Kingdom, to a 6-5 win against Coventry on Saturday. Murphy is the second-leading goal scorer in the league this season. On this weekend, he enjoyed the support of more than two dozen friends and family who made the trip to North Ireland.

In his last season with the Wellington Dukes, 2011- 12, Murphy led the league in goalscoring, notching 52 goals in 48 games.

Fellow Napanee native and former Dukes defender Curtis Leonard plays along with Murphy on the Belfast Giants’ team.