Stuck

Jacob Hethrington zeroes in on the forward attacker without taking himself out of position on the ice.

Two-game skid grounds Dukes in nowhereland

The Dukes fell back last week—back to .500—10 wins, 10 losses in 20 games. It might just be that kind of season. Some good nights, some bad. After all, this is a young team—with both the benefits and challenges that come with youth. Or it might just be some bad luck. Either way, they don’t want the past two games to define this season.

TOO LATE
Take Friday’s loss against North York. After a shutout win a week earlier, netminder Anthony Popovich had a tough night on Friday. By early in the third period, the score was 7- 2 for the Rangers. Some were earned goals—some weren’t. And for yet another game, the Dukes were punished on special teams—unable to score on the power play, unable to kill penalties.

An older, more mature team would have packed it in—chalked up another loss and moved on. Not these young Dukes. They knew they were faster than North York. They knew they could catch them. Luc Brown, as he has done many times this season, put a bit between his teeth and insisted his team follow. His first goal was unassisted—just a shot on net from a bad angle. The North York netminder was massive—but Brown put the puck into his feet. His Achilles feet. 7-3.

A few minutes later, defenceman Justin Bean, newly returned from a year in the OHL, fired a low shot from the blueline.

Brown got his stick on the puck and the score was 7-4. A power play goal.

The Dukes were fully engaged. The Rangers suddenly feeling vulnerable. A few minutes of swarming later—Brodie Butt found the rebound from a Jacob Panetta shot—and lifted the puck into the net. 7-5. North York called a time out. There was still more than seven minutes left in the game. The Dukes had scored three unanswered goals in 10 minutes. The Rangers were gasping for breath.

Still the Dukes kept coming. With three minutes left, Butt and Brown set up Ben Sokay who scored, drawing the Dukes within one goal of tying, in what had been a lost cause one period earlier.

The Rangers were just hanging on now

The Dukes pushed harder. Popovich on the bench for an extra forward. The Dukes came close, but eventually the puck came loose and was tossed to mid-ice. There, a North York forward was able to scoop it up and tally the empty-net goal.

For a period, the Dukes showed, themselves, their fans and their opponents they were the better team—it just came too late.

And so the experience on Friday should have propelled them into Pickering on Sunday. If they could tap into that intensity, that energy, earlier in the game—the outcome would surely be better, particularly against a team weaker than North York.

But that isn’t what happened. Outshot in the first, the Dukes fell behind when the Panthers scored in the final 90 seconds of the period. In the second, a parade of Dukes filed to the penalty box. Tripping. Slashing. High stick. Bad penalties. With seven opportunities, Pickering managed to score one on the power play.

In the third, the Dukes, at last, turned up the heat and were rewarded with a goal; Bean from Panetta—both welcome returnees to the Dukes’ blue line. But the Dukes couldn’t score the equalizer, despite outshooting Pickering for the first time in the game.

With just over three minutes left in the game, Pickering scored again. They added an empty-net goal to seal the win.

BRUTAL SPECIAL TEAMS
The Dukes are dead last in killing penalties in the OJHL—allowing a goal 28 per cent of the time their opponents have the man advantage. That might be tolerable if this squad was as disciplined as past Dukes teams. They are not.

While trending in the right direction, the Dukes still rack up too many penalties. Lacking an effective penalty killing unit, the Dukes are hobbling themselves every time they use their stick as a weapon.

UP NEXT: NEWMARKET AND WHITBY
The Dukes travel to Newmarket on Thursday evening to face the Hurricanes for the first time this season. Newmarket was scheduled to visit Wellington a couple of weeks ago, but the team’s bus broke down en route.

The Hurricanes are having a mixed season—doing okay at home, but struggling mightily on the road. The Dukes meanwhile will be looking to turn around their two-game skid and resume building a winning record.

On Friday, the Dukes host Whitby. It is the first time the East division rivals will have met since a wild and wooly game in Whitby in early October. That’s when the lead went back and forth a couple times, only to see Whitby tie the game in the dying moments of the third period. In overtime, Brown scored to snatch the win.