From the drop of the puck Thursday night at Lehigh Arena, the Wellington Dukes had the gas pedal pushed to the floor.

Ryan Schaap would fire home his 22^nd of the season just 1:42 into the game and the Dukes didn’t miss the net too often as the locals racked up an 11-4 win over the cellar-dwelling North York Rangers. With the win, Wellington moved their record to 29-16-2 and firmed up their grip on second place in the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.

As of Friday morning, the Dukes were six points clear of Cobourg although the Cougars have three games in hand. Cobourg was set to host Wellington Monday evening in a clutch, four point affair.

With over 700 in attendance, the Dukes gave plenty of reasons for the leather-lunged faithful to stand up and shout.

RAPID FIRE

Rangers defender Michael Dion scored his first OJHL goal at the 5:38 mark of the first to temporarily tie the game at 1-1 but a troika of Wellington goals in a span of 3:30 at the midway point of the stanza effectively dashed any thought North York might escape Prince Edward County with their eighth win of the season. Will Mitchell, Zander Latreille and Connor Hunt all lit the lamp behind Rangers starter Matteo Porporino in the first to take a 4-1 lead to the dressing room.

Wellington would go on to get goals from Connor Loerzel (2), Corey Jewitt, Ben Vreugdenhil, Caleb MacDonald, Colin Smith and Austin Montgomery-Parsons as this game turned into a laugher.

Dukes goalie Shane Shelest made 19 stops for his 12^th win of the season.

The Dukes go looking for their first win of the year against the visiting Trenton Golden Hawks Friday at Lehigh Arena in their only action of the upcoming weekend.