Wellington’s Ryan Schaap looks to the stands of Lehigh Arena after scoring his 6th goal of the season Friday night. Wellington won twice this weekend, coming back late in the third period and besting the Stoufville Spirit and St. Mike’s Buzzers in overtime. (Jason Parks/Gazette Staff)
Don’t look now but the Wellington Dukes are winners in their last five and within two points of third place in the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.
The locals proved this weekend they are adept in high leverage situations, winning a pair of thrilling overtime matches after they trailed by a goal or more late in the contest.
On Sunday, Wellington (9-5-0, 18 points) were in the comfy confines of St. Michael’s Arena in Toronto to try and quiet the 4th place Buzzers.
Late into the contest, Wellington trailed 4-2 and Coach Kent Lewis went for an early pull of net minder Noah Davis, calling the Calgary native to the Dukes bench with 2:41 left in the game.
Wellington gained the St. Mike’s offensive zone and bandied the biscuit around until Billerica, Massachusetts native Tyler Tsoukalas lit the lamp behind Buzzer’s starter Jacob Gorinsky at 2:19 left in the period.
After collecting the puck in their own end, Wellington ran back the same strategy but it didn’t take nearly as long to set up an equalizer. Mr. Davis had barely finished his sprint to the bench when Jared McNeil converted a Zander Latrielle pass with 1:25 left in the game to complete Wellington’s second third period comeback in as many contests.
Wellington didn’t wait around long to calculate the winning solution. Riley Noble spotted sophomore Ben Vreugdenhil and the Frankford native fired his second of the game and ninth of the campaign past Mr. Gorinsky to send the Dukes home happy. Colin Smith also scored for Wellington while Mr. Davis had 25 saves for his second OJHL win in as many starts.
On Friday, Wellington and visiting Stoufville both tried to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with the home side finally emerging victorious.
After the Dukes and the Spirit played to a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes, Zach Carrier counted on back-to-back shifts to put Wellington ahead 3-1.
But the Spirit showed plenty in the third.
Evan Breckles fired home a power play tally one minute into the final stanza to make a game of it at 3-2.
At the midway point of the frame and Wellington hunting for an insurance goal on the power play, a malfunction at the junction allowed Stoufville’s Dylan Wells time and space to beat Dukes goaltender Jack Lisson at 9:31 to square the affair at 3-3.
Wellington was dazed by the completed comeback and Mr. Breckles was able to grab a loose puck and fire a go ahead goal just under two minutes later.
With Wellington’s three game winning streak on the line, Mr. Lisson was lifted for an extra attacker with just under two minutes left in the game.
Wellington continued to work the puck around Spirit netminder Kyle Downey. Finally, with less than 30 seconds left on the clock, Mr. McNeil banged home a rebound off the stick of Mr. Carrier at the 24 second mark to tie the game and create bedlam among the 485 in attendance.
Neither team could find the back of the twine tent in the first session of overtime and the game went to three skaters aside in a second OT period where it was Captain Corey Jewitt breaking in on Mr. Downey and potting his 8th of the year.
Wellington once again takes to the road this weekend, reigniting the Battle of the Bay of Quinte when they travel to Trenton on Friday.
The Dukes are off to Aurora on Saturday. Their next home action is Wednesday with a game against the Markham Royals.
See it in the newspaper
-6° Light Snow
