Share this Story: Dukes start week tied for second in East
Dukes start week tied for second in East
Wellington Dukes rookie Harrison Ballard has already scored some key goals for the club, but none have been bigger than SundayÕs game winner with 39 seconds left in reulation to give the Dukes a 2-1 win over the visiting Haliburton County Huskies. Ed McPherson / OJHL Images Photo by Ed McPherson /(Photo by Ed McPherson / OJHL Im
Despite a weekend split, the Wellington Dukes were able to make up ground in the East Division standings, with a 2-1 win over the Haliburton County Huskies Sunday afternoon at Lehigh Arena. Friday night they dropped a disappointing 4-3 decision to the Lindsay Muskies on the road. Defence was the name of the game Sunday at Lehigh Arena as the Dukes and Huskies used strong efforts from their blueline corps and goalies as the host Dukes won a 2-1 thriller.
Dukes 2 – Huskies 1
Dukes start week tied for second in East Back to video
The teams were held to a combined total of 42 shots on net as Ethan Morrow, making his third consecutive start turned in a stellar 18-save performance for the win.
Harrison Ballard scored his biggest goal of the year, beating Christian Cicigoi in the Huskies net with just 39 seconds left in regulation, snapping a 1-1 tie and lifting the Dukes into a second-place tie with the Huskies with 26 points each.
The game was scoreless through the opening 20 minutes but Mason Reeves didn't take long to change that in the second. The big Etobicoke native got his first of season just 20 seconds into the middle stanza, beating Cicigoi from Liam Whittaker and newcomer Ethan Esposito, who was added to the team from the Kemptville 73s last week.
The Dukes almost got out of the period with the narrow lead, but Oliver Tarr put the only blemish of the afternoon on Morrow's game card when he pulled the Huskies even at the 17:19 mark.
Both goaltenders held their ground in the third but Morrow refused to blink first, setting the stage for Ballard's heroics. Emmet Pierce and David Campbell drew the assists on the game winner.
Wellington was 0-2 on the powerplay while the Huslies had no opportunities.
It was a short game for the recently acquired Jack Wolder. The big blueliner from Calgary introduced himself to Haliburton's Joe Boice with three minutes left in the first. The two heavyweights were given game misconducts for fighting and sent to the showers.
With the win, Wellington improved to 12-9-0-2 (26 pts). Haliburton sports a record of 12-8-1-1 and has a game in hand on Wellington.
Lindsay 4 – Wellington 3
Trailing 2-1 heading into the third Friday night, the host Muskies struck for a pair of powerplay markers early in the third to take a commanding three-goal lead.
As they have done a number of times this season, the Dukes went to work and pulled to within a goal with more than six minutes left in regulation, but couldn't buy the equalizer.
Wellington was down 2-0 after the opening period and almost carried that lead into the third, but David Campbell (6 th ) scored with nine seconds left in the middle period to cut the lead in half. Pierce had the lone helper on the tally.
Lindsay scored twice within three minutes to start the third, but there was no quit in the Dukes.
The team's leading scorer, Jacob Vreugdenhill (7 th ) scored from Esposito and Barret Joynt with 11 minutes left. Blueliner Cole McGuire scored his first OJHL goal when his shots found it's way into the back of the net with 6:38 remaining, but that was as close as they would get. Campbell and Pierce drew the helpers.
Morrow stopped 16 of 19 shots before giving way to Dunsmoor with 17:50 remaining. Dunsmoor stopped 10 of 11 shots he faced.
Dunsmoor was hurt on the weekend and is expected to miss between up to six weeks.
Final shots favoured Wellington 31-30 with Lindsay going 2-5 with the man advantage and Wellington 0-2.
The Dukes will play three games in four days on the weekend. They play a rare Thursday night home game, entertaining the Jr. Canadiens (7:30 p.m.) and then travel to Toronto Saturday for an evening date with the Patriots. They finish the weekend with a home game against Lindsay on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.