Story by Brock Ormond
Photo: OJHL Images/Wellington Dukes
The Wellington Dukes needed a come-from-behind effort to spoil the Cobourg Cougars bid to move up the East Conference standings in the OJHL on Saturday.
Wellington strung together five unanswered goals, including four in the third period to steal a 7-4 win from the Cougars in their Pink in the Rink game at the Cobourg Community Arena.
Cobourg stayed ahead through most of the first two periods, jumping ahead 2-1 after the first on markers spaced almost a minute apart from Nico Laforge and Nathan Whipkey, with Riley Noble scoring for Wellington.
Beckett Ewart upped the Cougars lead back to two again, but Ethan Murray put Wellington back in the mix by stealing the puck from a Cobourg player and rifling a shot over Tommy O’Donnell’s left shoulder.
A four-minute double minor kneeing penalty to Quinn McNamara initially presented a golden opportunity for Cobourg to run away with the score, as Nico Laforge struck to restore the two-goal margin.
However, Sacha Trudel provided a big response in the other half of the penalty, scooping home a puck in front of O’Donnell on a shorthanded rush with Ben Vreugdenhil to close the gap ahead of an explosive third period.
Murray stashed in his second of the game at 4:41 of the final frame to tie the game, before Ryan Schaap sunk home the winner with 7:53 to go in regulation.
Schaap iced the game with an empty-netter before Kyle Kavc finished off a three-point day with a punctuating goal on the powerplay in the final seconds.
Shots worked in favour of the Dukes 37-31, with Jacob Brown holding up a continuous run of play with 27 saves.
Wellington hits the 30-win mark with the victory ahead of a Super Bowl Sunday afternoon affair with the Pickering Panthers at 2:30 p.m.
