Story by Brock Ormond
Photo: Wellington Dukes/OJHL Images
A nightmarish second period was the Wellington Dukes undoing on Sunday afternoon.
The St. Michael’s Buzzers scored all six of their goals in the middle frame, including five unanswered in a span of almost 12 minutes, to drop the Dukes 6-4 and snap their six-game winning streak.
Wellington’s start was strong, as Ethan Murray continued his goal-scoring run with his 11th of the season 2:37 into the contest from Zach Mascard and Kyle Kavc.
The old hockey adage of ‘a chance missed at one end leads to a goal at the other’ materialized in the final minute of the frame, when the Buzzers hit a post from point blank range and the Dukes forced a turnover at centre ice.
Zack Carrier busted in and deked out Gorinsky for his sixth goal of the season with assistance from Murray and Cole Ellis.
Max Mahoney struck shorthanded shy of two minutes into the second, but Dukes captain Cory Jewitt re-established the two-goal lead with a powerplay marker, his team-leading 13th of the season from Ben Vreugdenhil and Zander Latreille.
St. Mike’s kicked things into high gear with consecutive goals from Mahoney, Willem Kerr, Hudson Cummins, Aiden O’Toole and Ethan Nobes to jump ahead 6-3.
A Tyler Tsoukalas marker in the third wasn’t enough for the Dukes to come back, despite the visitors outshooting St. Mike’s 37-31.
The Dukes fall to 15-9 with the defeat and will come back home to start another ‘three-in-three’ weekend against the Stouffville Spirit at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
