The Wellington Dukes travelled to Newmarket today and defeated the Hurricanes by a score of 4 to 1 and in doing so clinched a playoff spot for the 25th time in their 25 years of franchise history.
Just 16 seconds into the game Luc Brown opened the scoring for the visitors and before the period ended they would add two more by Andrew Coupland and, on the powerplay, Abbott Girduckis. The hometown Hurricanes came out in the middle frame and threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Dukes and were finally rewarded with a goal to trim the lead to 3 to 1. The goal for the Canes was their first in 3 meetings with the Dukes covering a period of 145 minutes and 49 seconds.
Wellington settled things down in the third and scored the lone goal by Joe McKeown to make the final 4 to 1. Trevor Cope and Mike Robinson each had a pair of assists while other helpers went to Kyle Paat, Erick Delaurentis, Brown and Girduckis. In goal, Tyson Teichmann stopped all but one of the 40 shots he faced.
The Dukes are right back at it Friday night when they host the Cobourg Cougars with a 7:30 PM puck drop.
