On a bitter and cold Tuesday night in early February, the Wellington Dukes said sayonara to any prospect of finishing the regular season higher than fourth place in the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.

In front of a sparse Lehigh Arena crowd, the visiting Halliburton County Huskies systematically dissected the Dukes in a 4-0 whitewash. The Huskies were akin to melting taffy in their own end, bottling up Wellington for long stretches of the game and keeping most of the home side’s volleys to the perimeter of the offensive zone.

Any time Wellington did get close to the net, Pups goaltender and Dartmouth College commit Tyler Hodges was larger than life, swallowing up every chance the Dukes had around the goal–few and as far between as they were.

With the loss, the third place Huskies opened an eight point spread on the fourth place Dukes. Wellington, at 29-14-3 and 61 points, still hold a three point edge on fifth place Stoufville. Each team has 10 games left. Both are far enough ahead of St. Mikes who are stuck in sixth place at 51 points as to not concern themselves with tumbling that far down the standings.

While not a mathematical certainty, the Dukes and Spirit are destined to meet each other in the playoffs. The only real question remaining is can Wellington muster enough jam over the last ten games to retain home ice advantage for the first round of the 2025 Buckland Cup Playoffs?

Making Headway

Wellington entered Tuesday night’s contest having taken points in five of their last six games. Their most recent regulation setback was Thursday, January 23 when they were defeated 5-2 at the hands of the visiting Toronto Junior Canadiens.

The following evening, the North York Rangers got a rough ride as the Dukes downed the visitors 11-1.

After a scoreless first, the Dukes erupted in the second and third periods, managing a mittful in the middle stanza and half a dozen in the final frame.

Cory Jewitt and Ryan Schaap paced Wellington scoring with two goals and two helpers a piece while Quinn McNamara also lit the lamp twice. Defenceman Ryan Castle had four helpers in the outing.

On Sunday, January 26, Wellington quieted the St. Mike’s Buzzers 6-4. Jared McNeil and Sacha Trudel were the offensive catalysts, each scoring twice for Wellington. The Dukes got great goaltending from Jacob Brown who made 44 saves in the game to pick up his 11^th victory of the campaign.

Missed Opportunity

The game Wellington would probably like to replay in their latest stretch was the January 30^th game against Stoufville.

In a four point match up against a likely playoff opponent, the Dukes fell behind the hosts 5-1 over the opening 30 minutes.

Then, Wellington turned the game around 180 degrees. Mr. McNeil, Mr. Schapp and Zennon Edwards all scored in a 3:50 span to shave the Spirit margin down to a single goal.

In the third, Kyle Kavc would fire an equalizer at the 6:34 mark and Mr. Jewitt netted a would-be game winner at the mid way point of the frame.

But, with two goals to his credit already, Riley Pope popped a game tying goal with under two minutes left in the contest to knot it at 6-6.

After a scoreless 4-on-4 overtime, the teams played three aside. Mr. Pope, on a hot streak for the ages, sniped his fourth of the night at the 2:49 mark to send the 223 Spirit fans home happy.

Up Next

Wellington did pick up a regulation win on Groundhog Day against the visiting Lindsay Muskies but it did take until the ultimate minute to produce a game winning tally.

With the teams tied at 3-3 inside the 60^th minute, Ben Vreugdenhil picked an opportune time to notch his 19^th of the season, beating Lindsay’s Noah Kraus with 53 seconds left on the clock.

The Dukes are in Cobourg on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. and return to host the Pickering Panthers on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.