Despite suffering their first loss of the season, the Wellington Dukes still had a winning weekend.

And for rookie bench boss Jacob Panetta, the big picture must remain in focus, even if some tiny details pose a distraction.

The Dukes (6-1-0, 12 points) kicked off their weekend Friday with a tough, penalty-filled loss against the Stoufville Spirit. A rookie coach might howl over the bewildering nature of some of the calls on Friday and allow his team to stew on what might have been if they received an even shake in the administration of hockey jurisprudence. That’s typically how junior hockey losing streaks are born.

But to Mr. Panetta and the club’s credit, Saturday was a new day and Wellington produced a crafty 5-3 third period comeback in Lindsay to get the squad back to their winning ways.

And then on Sunday, Wellington ground down the resolve of the visiting Markham Royals 3-1 to collect four of a possible six points.

“We are talking a lot about winning the week or the weekend and that’s what we accomplished. We aren’t going to go undefeated this year but we have to make sure we aren’t too low after a loss or too high after a win,” Mr. Panetta told the Gazette. “I was really happy with the way we responded to early adversity and persevered.”

Battle Royale

Wellington has done well to stymie the Markham Royals so far. After whitewashing the Royals on the road 3-0 earlier this season, the Dukes kept up their sound defensive play Sunday afternoon at Lehigh Arena and capped off their winning weekend with a 3-1 win.

Wellington landed on the score sheet first when Christian Armstrong hit rookie Beckham Brooks with a drop pass in the high slot. Mr. Brooks made no mistake in potting his first Jr. A goal as he snapped home the puck fivehole from the hash marks and staked Wellington to a 1-0 lead.

Markham’s Phil Govedaris solved Dukes starter Colby Booth-Housego at 14:06 to make it a 1-1 game after the first intermission.

Wellington moved ahead to stay with under three minutes left in the second.

Enjoying a powerplay, Wellington showed excellent penitence and poise in the Markham zone before Zach Mascard shovelled a pass to Quinn McNamara at the side of the Royals net. The Arva, ON product had a tap in with 2:43 left in the middle frame to push Wellington ahead to stay.

Vince Albanese notched his second of the year in the third to provide Wellington some insurance as their legs wore heavy at the end of a busy weekend.

From behind the Royals net, Zach Carrier had Markham netminder Crosby Dacosta looking the other way and hit Mr. Albanese in the slot with a pass. The Vaughn, ON native had an ocean of mesh to aim at and lit the lamp with 7:29 left in the contest.

Mr. Booth-Housego made 21 stops for his third win in as many starts. While the sample size is small, CBH has a 2:28 goals against average and a .924 save percentage in nine periods of hockey thus far.

“The goaltending was great overall this weekend,” Mr. Panetta said. “Even in the loss, they gave us plenty of opportunity to win.”

Reel Big Fish

On Saturday in Lindsay, Wellington fell behind 1-0 in the first but struck for a pair in the first ten minutes of the second to push ahead of the Fish 2-1. Ethan Murray played triggerman on an odd man rush beating Muskies starter Noah Kraus low blocker side 47 seconds into the stanza.

Zach Carrier picked up his second helper of the frame at 8:36 when Vince Albanese picked up his chip pass inside the Wellington zone and weaved through opposing Lindsay skaters before going low to the short side to make it 2-1 Dukes.

Nolan Miller would tie the contest in the late going and County native Kaden Koutroulides added his fourth of the year for Lindsay early in the third to retake a one goal lead.

But the Dukes came back in a big way in the final period to squish the Fish for good.

After a broken play at the Lindsay blue line, team captain Sacha Trudel scooped up a loose puck and skated wide into the Muskies zone, picking the short side corner on Mr. Kraus again at 7:01 to square the affair at 3-3.

With five minutes left, Wellington flexed its offensive muscle again. Mr. Carrier converted a drop pass from Mr. Turdel and picked the corner past a screened Lindsay netminder for the game winner with just 4:09 left to play.

In the late going, Mr. Carrier doubled down with an empty netter to make it a 5-3 final in favour of Wellington.

“Going back to my playing days, Lindsay is always a tough place to play but we were resilient in coming back and leaving with two points,” Mr. Panetta said.

Mr. Booth-Housego came up with 27 stops in the win.

Choppy

On Friday, Mr. Panetta said Wellington probably played its most complete game to date but ended up on the wrong side of a 6-4 decision to visiting Stoufville. Wellington’s first set back of the campaign was tough to digest because the Spirit’s power play unit went 4-9 in the game. An empty netter at the end of the contest notwithstanding, the visitors managed just one evenstrength marker on the night.

“Stoufville’s a really good team and their depth really comes through for them. Clearly, we need to be far more disciplined the next time out because they will hurt you on the power play,” the skipper said.

The Spirit took a 3-2 lead to the dressing room after 40 minutes and nearly buried Wellington early in the third with a pair of power play tallies.

The Dukes showed some jam in the late going with Mr. Carrier and Mr. Mascard finding the range on successive Wellington power plays that made the score 5-4 with ten minutes left in the contest. But the Dukes couldn’t solve Spirit starter and former OHLer Hayden Sabourin in the late going as he shut the door time and again.

The OJHL’s leading goal getter Zack Corte bookended the scoring on the night with his 11^th into a yawning Wellington cage to make the final 6-4.

The Dukes are at home on Wednesday when they host Haliburton. Wellington is idle Friday night before heading to Newmarket for the first time in almost a decade. The Ray Twinney Arena is now home of the relocated Toronto Junior Canadians who have taken on the familiar moniker of Hurricanes.