The post is still ringing in Lehigh Arena.

Jayden Levesque missed extending the game by centimetres as he rang the post on Wellington’s final chance to tie the game in a shootout. Instead, Newmarket walked away with a 3-2 win, dropping the Dukes to 2-1-1 on the young Ontario Junior Hockey League season.

“I can’t fault the guys effort tonight. The matter of fact is we’re playing short. We’ve got a ton of injuries right now. Certain players are stepping up and carrying us forward. It’s what we need. I keep telling them it’s just a little bit of adversity but we will be better for it when we get our guys back,” said Dukes Head Coach Jacob Panetta.

Icing a shorthanded lineup meant Wellington was in tough against one of the best teams in the East Conference from the get-go. Despite being outshot 34-14 in the first two frames, the Dukes headed into the third period nursing a one goal lead. For the second time in two home appearances, goaltender Dryden Riley stood on his head, stopping 45 of the 48 shots he faced.

“He’s our rock back there. We have all the faith and trust in him in the world. He’s played a lot of hockey these last few weeks. He never wavers, he’s rock solid and we’re lucky to have him,” Mr. Panetta said.

After Newmarket opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game, Justin Doak responded for Wellington by going shelf with 17:25 into the frame. Jordan Mayo made it 2-1 on the power play with four minutes to go in the second.

Two and a half periods of hard work was erased when the Dukes were put on the penalty kill after what they clearly felt was a soft call. Newmarket capitalized, and in retaliation to the sequence, Zachary Mascard took a verbal-abuse-of-officials misconduct penalty. That meant one of the Dukes’ top scorers sat and watched half of the third period from the penalty box.

Mr. Panetta said penalty trouble has plagued the Dukes in the past and admitted his players did themselves no favours in the discipline department. Mascard’s misconduct was the second of a pair of retaliatory penalties. In the first period, after he was hauled down by a Hurricane, Mascard saw he wasn’t getting a call, and chopped at the feet of his offender. The retaliation did not go unnoticed.

“Hockey is an emotional game and sometimes we struggle on the ice controlling those emotions. It’s something we’ll continue to work on. Not to dwell on last year, penalties were a huge issue for us. It’s something from the start of camp we’ve tried to address. I think we need to be a lot better and control what we can control,” Mr. Panetta said.

After overtime solved nothing, the two teams went to a shootout. The only player to crack either goaltender was Joshua Giordano, who beat Riley on the first attempt.

Wellington will travel to Pickering for a matchup against the Panthers on Sunday. Puck drop in Pickering is set for 7:30 p.m.

“Handling adversity is huge for us and I would rather go through it now than down the line,” Mr. Panetta said.