Tougher

Playing for keeps

The Wellington Dukes keep getting better. Week by week. The team is perfect through four games in 2024—they’ve won nine of their last 11 games. And with key additions—Ryan Schaap, Nick Brady, Josh Rumolo and Brad Barker—the Dukes have become tougher and grittier to play against.

The Cobourg Cougars will surely attest that it isn’t much fun to visit Wellington Dukes anymore. The Dukes came into Sunday’s game at home with a plan to outwork the Cougars, to pin them deep and finish every check. Hard. Every player in the lineup was on board.

For the first ten minutes, the puck rarely left the Cobourg zone. The Dukes out-hustled, out-skated and fought for every loose puck. Still, by the end of the first period, there was no score—by either team. The Dukes, however, outshot Cobourg 10-4 in the frame.

But early in the second, the Dukes were killing penalty—a talking penalty, the worst kind—when Ethan Quick intercepted a Cobourg breakout pass in the Cougars zone. He spun around, but instead of shooting frantically, he could see he had some room. Fake shot. Deke, before sliding the puck behind the overcommitted Cougar netminder.

Before Quick’s opening goal, Pana Ephraimidis had rung the post with a shot, creeping in from the right-side face-off circle. A minute after the Dukes had gone ahead, and his team on the power play, Ephraimidis, made the same move, this time he calibrated his shot and found the far side of the net.

But the Dukes were tagged for another talking penalty. Cobourg power play goal. Then, two Dukes went to the box. Another Cobourg goal. The game was tied. Inexplicably.

Then it was Cobourg’s turn to play with a two-man disadvantage. Dukes regained the lead as Corey Jewitt scored from a Schaap rebound.

Logan Hunt scored the empty net goal to seal the win.

DUKES 1 – LINDSAY 0
Four periods. No goals. Seventy shots—40 for Wellington, 30 for Lindsay. It was a defensive grudge match that seemed bound to end in a tie. That is until Nick Dipaolo— three on three—broke free and fired a shot on net. Hit the post. Dipaolo collected his own rebound and was forced to skate away from the net to find another point of attack. This time, he buried his shot. That’s all the Dukes needed.

Jack Lisson earned the shutout.

UP NEXT: TRENTON AND HALIBURTON
The Dukes cross the Bay of Quinte to tangle with the Trenton Golden Hawks on Friday night. The Hawks are unbeaten in five games, with a tie game against Cobourg, the team’s only blemish in that span. Familiar names—Barrett Joynt, Corbin Roach, and Lucas Lapalm—are among Trenton’s leading scorers.

The Golden Hawks have won both previous matches with the Dukes—though just a single goal decided the last match in December.

On Sunday, the Dukes welcome Haliburton County to Wellington for the second time this season. The Huskies have won two of three games against the Dukes this season. But they are wobbling of late—having lost two of their last five games and settling for a tie against Toronto Junior Canadiens. The Huskies are led by veteran Patrick Saini, who has amassed 69 points in 42 games.