Wellington’s Sacha Trudel and Newmarket’s Kristian Lamanna both scored power play goals In a 3-2 hotly contested hockey game won by Wellington on Friday. (Jason Parks/Gazette Staff)
After one of the more tumultuous years they’ve experienced off the ice, the Wellington Dukes closed out 2025 with a flourish on the ice.
Six months removed from financial snarls and whispers the team might not even live to see another season, the Wellington Dukes are very much alive. After a winless streak in October and part of November that reached 14 games, the Dukes have come roaring back to inject themselves into the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s East Conference playoff race.
Wellington (17-11-6, 40 points) are winners of five straight and six of their last seven.
Last week, they were every hockey team they needed to be in order to emerge on the right side of the score sheet- Comeback Kids in overtime, victors in high stakes, playoff-type atmosphere and point hungry snipers in a laugher to close out the calendar year.
Coaches Jacob Panetta and Darcy Murphy have seen their hockey club come in from the wilderness just in time to position themselves for a post-holiday playoff push.
“The message to the guys has been that the season overall is a marathon but there are times when you have to sprint. We looked at these last five games to end 2025 that way and knew we had to come up with some points,” Mr. Panetta told the Gazette. “The guys are trusting the process, believing in themselves and each other. It’s been fun to watch.”
In Cobourg on Sunday, Wellington didn’t spare the whip against a hapless Cougars club that hadn’t won since the first week of November. The Dukes beat a path to the Cobourg net early and often en route to 10-2 drubbing of the hosts.
After hanging a three spot on the hosts in the opening stanza, Wellington had their biggest offensive outburst of the season in the second, hanging a half dozen on Cobourg in the frame.
Even when the Cougars looked like they had salvaged a smidgen of pride by busting Colby Booth-Housego’s shutout bid in the final 30 seconds of the middle stanza, Quinn McNamara busted through Wellington’s ninth of the afternoon with eight seconds left in the period.
The list of Wellington skaters that didn’t pick up a point in this game, three, is far shorter than the ones who did. Rookie Sammy Longo led the points parade with two goals and two assists while Zach Carrier, Tristan Williams and Liam Campbell also tickled the twine twice.
Friday’s game against the visiting Newmarket Hurricanes was one of the more dramatic post-COVID Jr. A games played in Wellington in the last five seasons. One would probably need to go back to the 2023 Buckland Cup playoffs and the end of the Derek Smith-era to find a game as intense as the contest put on for nearly 400 Dukes faithful in the Lehigh Arena stands Friday night.
The Canes are no lightweights. Skipper David Demarinis have Newmarket firmly in the hunt for the Conference title and his Hurricanes systematically picked Wellington apart in their last visit to Lehigh.
“There were a lot of gritty, gutsy efforts tonight. We were struggling to kill penalties early in the game but we really came through in the third,” he said. “(Goaltender Booth-Housego) was our best penalty killer down the stretch.”
It seemed like the first period would end without a goal but the Dukes picked up a powerplay opportunity at the end of the frame. It was frenetic action in the Newmarket zone initiated mostly by captain Sacha Trudel who was all over the score sheet on this night. With just 45 seconds left in the frame, Mr. Trudel was able to take a rebound in the slot and tuck the puck behind Canes goaler Hayden Duncan for a late frame tally that put Wellington in front 1-0.
In the second, the teams traded goals in very short order. After coming tantalizingly close a handful of times, Newmarket’s Simon Wang finally converted on the power play at 8:07, beating Mr. Booth-Housego to the glove side to square the affair at 1-1.
But Wellington wasn’t long restoring the lead. Just 13 seconds later off a broken play in front of Mr. Duncan, Mr. Carrier sniped his 19th of the year.
Things were going swimmingly for Wellington in the second until Mr. Trudel took a jab at a Hurricane during a post whistle fracas in the Newmarket zone. Wellington would kill the first of the double minor spearing penalty at the end of frame but not the second two minute disadvantage.
Mr. Wang set up Kristian Lamanna at 1:47 to tie the contest at 2-2 and set up an incredible third period.
Mr. Trudel took another stick penalty but then Nathan Phillips was whistled for a major head check infraction that left Wellington’s Kyle Grasby bloodied.
The Dukes broke the tie when Cole Ellis’s point volley sailed past Mr. Duncan at 8:06. The Newmarket bench believed their goalie was interfered with on the play but the goal stood after a review.
Wellington couldn’t extend their lead during the remainder of their power play time but the other half of their special teams unit would come up massive down the stretch. Mr. Carrier would be called for charging major and Mr. Trudel picked up another minor on the same sequence, forcing Wellington to burn off a full two minute five-on-three penalty kill situation against a Newmarket power play unit that is top five in the OJHL and had already struck for a pair of goals.
It was definitely gut check time in Wellington. But patched up and returned to service in a new sweater because his original was covered in blood was defender Mr. Grasby.
“He’s the rock back there,” Mr. Panetta said. “He calms everything down and does all the little things correctly. You expect that level of play in those situations from a veteran like that and it’s contagious…they were playing for each other out there.”
The Canes threw everything at Wellington’s mesh mansion over the final ten minutes of play. Mr. Booth-Housego was exceptionally excellent. Somehow, some way, the Dukes didn’t break. The buzzer went with the locals leading 3-2. The club saluted their fans for the final time in 2025.
Almost forgotten in the afterglow of Friday’s clutch win over third-place Newmarket was a clutch, comeback overtime decision against host St. Micheals at College Arena a night prior.
It was a four point game for the opposing squads who are battling for fifth place in the conference.
Wellington fell behind 2-0 thanks to goals from Max Mahoney and Caiden Clair. But only 28 seconds after the Buzzers doubled their lead, the visitors went to work.
Carson Albert did a phenomenal job holding the line to keep the puck hemmed in the St. Mike’s zone. Evan Erwin spotted Landon Marleau in the slot and the Son Jose, CA native fired his 13th goal past Buzzer netminder Jon Frattaroli at 1:51 of the second.
Both Mr. Maki and Mr. Booth-Housego were infallible as the game traversed into its final five minutes.
Wellington would finally get to even thanks to a late power play. Off the rush, Zach Mascard would slide a nice backhand feed from the far corner to the slot where spark plug Vince Albanese cut to the near post and potted a back hand lamp lighter to force overtime.
The game winner had some odour to it. From below the goal line, Mr. Campbell bunted the puck to the front of the net where Mr. Frattaroli went to all fours and tried to pounce on the bouncing biscuit like a cat would a mouse. But the St. Mikes netminder couldn’t quite get his oven mitts on the puck. Mr. Marleau deftly collected the disc, pirouetted around the home side’s goal and tucked a two foot tap into the yawning cage with 2:44 left in overtime.
Wellington didn’t have any problems in North York on Tuesday. Mr. Booth-Housego stopped all 26 shots from the Blueshirts in a 6-0 whitewash of the host Rangers.
Mr. Marleau and Mr. Albanese paced Wellington scoring with a pair a piece while Mr. Erwin and Will Mitchell also scored.
Wellington returns to the ice Saturday, January 3, 2026 in Aurora. The Dukes are back home Wednesday, January 7 when they host Milton.
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