Dukes chances pay off in Sunday win

Story by Brock Ormond

Photo: OJHL Images/Wellington Dukes

The Wellington Dukes made this busy weekend a winning one, thanks in large part to their goaltender.

Jacob Brown was swamped with 48 shots, but made 44 saves in a 6-4 Dukes victory over the St. Michael’s Buzzers on Sunday at Lehigh Arena.

Wellington went ahead 2-1 in the first with Jared McNeil scoring from a strange angle on St. Mike’s goalie William Camputaro and Jayden Levesque forcing a turnover to go in and score, sandwiching an Anthony Francella marker for the Buzzers.

The Buzzers hit back more than two minutes into the second period on a Keegan Driscoll goal, before Sacha Trudel notched a pair, with one off a shot off a broken play that chased Camputaro from the net and the other on a shorthanded breakaway to put the Dukes ahead by two.

Nathan McLean buried a rebound off a failed Daniel Yorke shot to cut Wellington’s lead back to one, before Ethan Murray restored the two-goal bulge with a quick shot from the left faceoff circle for his 20th of the season.

McNeil potted his second of the game on a feed from Levesque to make it 6-3 and although a late tally from Driscoll pulled St. Mike’s back within two, it was not enough to make up the gap.

The Dukes got a four point game from Levesque, and three points each from Trudel and McNeil in the victory, while Tyler Tsoukalas added two assists.

Shots favoured the Buzzers 48-22.

Wellington improves to 28-13-0-2 on the season and separates the lead on fourth place in the East Conference to four points over the Stouffville Spirit, the very next matchup on the slate on Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.