The Wellington Dukes will start the 2025 Buckland Cup chase on the road.

The locals stumbled to a 4-6-1 record over the final 10 regular season contests of their 2024-25 Ontario Junior Hockey League schedule, allowing the Stoufville Spirit to catch them in the Eastern Conference standings. Both teams tied with with incidental records of 33-19-4 and 70 points a piece however the Spirit held the tie break on goal differential, meaning the Dukes travel to Stoufville Arena for Game One on Saturday night.

Wellington hosts Game Two on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. The rest of the series had yet to be determined as of Tuesday morning.

The two clubs were even in their four head-to-head matchups with each club winning a regulation game and an overtime decision however the Spirit won the most recent games between the two clubs on January 11 and 30.

Ending on a high note

Wellington managed to beat up on a pair of non-playoff teams to close out their regular season campaign.

On Tuesday, February 25, Wellington blasted the North York Rangers 8-1. Zander Latrielle, Cory Jewitt, and Jayden Levesque led the points parade with three a piece.

Wellington finished their season with a home-and-home set against the Aurora Tigers.

On Thursday in Aurora, Wellington’s Ryan Schaap broke a 3-3 dead lock with under two minutes left in the game to give the Dukes their 32 win of the season. Schaap’s second of the contest came just 90 seconds before Riley Noble sealed the 5-3 win with an empty netter.

The following night in Wellington, the Dukes fired home four goals in the opening 16 minutes en route to a decisive 7-3 victory.

Ben Vreugdenhil had a pair for the victors while single tallies came off the sticks of Sacha Trudel, Mr. Latrielle, Zenon Edwards, Ethan Murray, and Mr. Schaap.

Dario Cantini picked up his ninth win of the campaign. Wellington’s Jacob Brown was the goaltender of record in the previous two outings and posted 15 wins this season.

When it’s finalized, Wellington’s 2025 playoff schedule will be posted at ojhl.ca .