Did the Wellington Dukes give the Pickering Panthers something to think about when the two clubs hook up early next month for their opening round Buckland Cup playoff series?

The host Dukes blanked the visiting Cats Sunday night 3-0. Wellington netminder Dryden Reilly was perfect, denying Pickering shooters on all 43 volleys they sent the Trenton, ON native’s way.

While there’s still some jockeying left to do to finalize the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s playoff positioning, the third seeded Panthers and the sixth seeded Dukes will meet in the Junior A post season.

While the team can’t improve its seeding at this point and is in no danger of slipping to seventh place in the OJHL’s East Conference, Sunday’s win was an important one for the Dukes (26-18-9).

The locals dropped a 4-1 decision in Toronto on Thursday night against the host St. Mike’s Buzzers and followed that up a night later with a 7-4 loss against the visiting Toronto Patriots. While the loss to the West Division Pats was somewhat expected—Toronto has only lost eight games all season and is this corner’s pick to be one of the two teams still battling for the Buckland in May—losing to the seventh place Buzzers was not on anyone’s scorecard.

Blanked

After a scoreless first period, the Dukes managed an icebreaker early in the second. Cain Tucker was denied by Pickering goaltender Dan Giusti a couple of times in close before a tumbling puck went up and over the prone Panther puck stopper. Mr Tucker batted home his fourth of the year at 2:35 to give the Dukes a 1-0 bulge.

Wellington doubled down just over two minutes later on the power play. Will Mitchell burst off the half wall and picked the corner clean on Mr. Giusti to push Wellington ahead 2-0.

Pickering had the edge on shots in both the second and the third periods, but Mr. Reilly was more than equal to the task.

With the game still in the lurch late in the third, Wellington went back to work with the man advantage. Leading goal getter Zach Carrier blasted his 34^th of the year off a set draw play four seconds into a power play.

Penalty Trouble

On Friday, the Dukes hosted the OJHL’s best power play unit at Lehigh Arena and the locals didn’t do themselves any favours by beating a steady path to the sin bin. The Patriots went 3-for-7 with the man advantage including a pair of first period power play tallies.

Down 2-1 at the end of the first, Evan Erwin found Liam Campbell open in the slot with 95 seconds left in the opening period. Mr. Campbell beat Toronto’s Trey Caracciolo to the glove side to square the affair at 2-2.

But in the first minute of the second, the Pats pushed ahead. Cole Cooksey beat Mr. Reilly on a partial break and tucked a backhander home at 32 seconds.

Mr. Mitchell managed another equalizer at 5:29 but the Pats pushed ahead to stay at 10:33 of the second.

Toronto had three straight tallies in the third before Aiden Lee found the back of the net for Wellington with under three minutes left to add some respectability to the final score.

Lack of Output

A night prior, Wellington got off to the start they wanted at the St. Mike’s Arena band box. Sacha Trudel beat Jonathan Frattroli 1:48 into the game for a 1-0 lead but the hosts buzzed back. Tyler Clark’s ninth of the season tied the game 1-1 after one.

The hosts scored a pair of goals one minute apart at the midway point of the second to effectively take Wellington out of the contest. Mr. Frattroli made 33 saves, many of which were more than just routine stops on long-distance shots.

Julian Campoli added a goal with 16 seconds left to make it a 4-1 final for St. Mikes.

Tough Road Ahead

The Dukes have a couple of tough dates this week: travelling to Collingwood on Tuesday and Leamington on Thursday before finishing up their regular season schedule at home on Sunday against Cobourg.

Collingwood and Leamington are still seeking points to either secure or improve their playoff seeding while Wellington is locked in to sixth place.

Sunday’s game against Cobourg is meaningless in the grand scheme of things as the Cougars were eliminated from post season contention months ago.