The final stretch

Dukes begin the new year with a pair of wins

I begin 2019 with a correction. In last week’s column I laid out playoff scenarios for the Wellington Dukes and other teams in the East and North Division. This was all wrong. While these two divisions had formed a conference for many years, the OJHL switched things up in the off season, such that the East Division is now paired with the South Division to form the South East Conference. It was my mistake. No excuse. Sorry.

Wellington’s latest addition, Logan Bateman, acquired from Nepean of the CCHL, made a strong debut in the Dukes net. He was 15 seconds away from a shutout in his first game in Pickering. Nevertheless, he and his team won the game 3-1. He topped that with a decisive 8-4 win over Lindsay on Sunday.

So, at the risk of muddying the playoff picture further, while the format was described accurately, the mistaken conference composition rendered the team implications incorrectly.

As it stands as of Monday morning, the Dukes have a solid grip of the fourth and final playoff spot in the East—five points ahead of Kingston. The Voyageurs are on the outside and have a tough path to make the playoffs. That is because the fourth-place team in the South division, the Toronto Patriots, have 45 points, seven more than Kingston. Only if the Voyageurs surpass either the Dukes or the Patriots will they advance.

There is still much hockey to be played.

The Dukes have 14 games remaining. Kingston has 16. Toronto has just 12.

All this means that the Dukes must stay focused on winning games. Their fate is in their hands.

They took two good strides in that direction on the weekend with a pair of wins.

The Dukes, however, lost their number one netminder, Olivier Lafreniere, over the Christmas break. Lafreniere signed with the Laurier Golden Hawks of the OAU and has already played in a couple of games, a pair of tough losses.

The Dukes made a deal to bring 20-year-old Logan Bateman to Wellington to take Lafreniere’s place in the Wellington net. The Dukes acquired Bateman from the Nepean Raiders of the CCHL. There Bateman earned a decent save percentage (.917) on an anemic Raiders team.

So far the Ottawa native has made an smooth transition—with a pair of wins. Bateman came within 15 seconds of a shutout in his first game in Pickering. A third period lapse in team discipline and structure in Sunday’s game against Lindsay bloated his goals against statistic.

The Dukes won this game 8-4, but the match was effectively over when Adam Usinger scored midway through third period. Usinger’s goal made the score 6-2 and the Muskies were defeated.

But the Dukes continue to struggle with composure. They know they must always play with structure and intensity. Yet they are too easily provoked and give in to impulse. These are natural tendencies that ought to be weaned out by now in their development.

DUKES 8 – LINDSAY 4
It had been a strong outing for the Dukes against a Lindsay team that had caused them trouble in earlier matches in the season.

It was the Muskies who were tagged with penalties early—a reverse of pattern. This tended to tilt the ice in the Dukes’ favour. Dukes defender/sniper Zach Uens wristed a shot though traffic on the power play that caught the top corner far side.

Like a carnival rider climbing the walls of a gravity defying silo, Ben Woodhouse propels himself up the boards and over Muskie defenceman Tucker Firth in Sunday action in Wellington.

Early in the second, Dylan Massie charged up the wing and got a good shot away on net. Elijah Gonsalves was right on Massie’s tail, poised to swat in the rebound.

Later in the second, Ben Woodhouse was rewarded for a brilliant shift. Woodhouse is among the hardest working and most tenacious checker at both ends of the ice. He is fearless blocking shots. His efforts in the offensive zone managed to keep the puck in the Lindsay zone. Twice it appeared the puck would be cleared, but Woodhouse was on top of the Muskie to take away the puck. The Dukes kept moving it around until Frank Vitucci spotted Woodhouse on the other side of the Muskies’ crease. Woodhouse buried the shot. Karma.

Lindsay tallied late in the second, but Jacob Vreugdenhil scored just 11 seconds later, on a fine set up by Usinger and Tyson Gilmour. Dukes captain Tim Fallowfield scored another power play goal early in the third. The Dukes had a 5-1 lead, but Lindsay still believed they were in this game.

The Muskies scored shortly afterward. A moment later Usinger’s goal restored the Dukes’ four-goal advantage.

This is where it might have ended. But then a Dukes penalty. Muskies scored. Forty-five seconds later the score was suddenly 6-4 and Lindsay had all the momentum. It seemed the game might slip away. But Wellington held on. Fallowfield scored on the empty net. Andrew Rinaldi potted another late in the game.

It was an adventure—but it was two points.

DUKES 3 – PICKERING 1
In Pickering on Friday night both teams played tough defensively—failing to find the net until midway through the third period. That is when Woodhouse gave the Dukes the lead, from Rinaldi and Vitucci. Moments later Gilmour widened the lead with his 15th goal of the season. Daniel Panetta scored into the empty net. And that was the game.

Or should have been. The Panthers’ Riley Girard sniped a shot 15 seconds from the buzzer to rob Logan Bateman of the shutout, in his first game in the Dukes net.

UP NEXT: WHITBY, GEORGETOWN AND BUFFALO
A busy weekend for the Dukes is on deck. On Friday evening, the Dukes welcome the Whitby Fury for the fourth meeting between these divisional rivals. The Fury currently reside in second spot in the east—with just two wins in their last five games. Head-to-head Whitby has two wins in three games against the Dukes this season.

On Saturday, the Dukes travel to Georgetown for the first time since defeating the Raiders in the OJHL Championship last April. The Dukes downed Georgetown 5-3 when the Raiders visited Wellington in September. The Raiders are fighting for their playoff lives—currently on the outside looking in. But along with the Cobourg Cougars, the Raiders have the most games in hand with 18.

On Sunday, the Dukes welcome Buffalo, currently second in their division behind the OJHL-leading Oakville Blades. This is the only meeting between the Junior Sabres and the Dukes this season. Buffalo possesses a decent power play (17.62) but a porous penalty kill (77.25), the worst in the league. The Junior Sabres have lost their last three games.