By: Amanda Monahan
[1]Dukes celebrate 4-2 victory over Oakville in Wellington Tuesday night. Photo By: Amanda Monahan
The Wellington Dukes are heading to cottage country in search of their second Dudley Hewitt trophy in 10 years.
They will be representing the Ontario Junior A Hockey League at the tournament in Huntsville next week that runs from April 19-23.
The Dukes will be facing off against the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Junior A Hockey League, the Wisconsin Wilderness of the Superior International Junior A Hockey League and the host team Huntsville Muskoka Otters of the OJHL.
The winners of the round robin tournament advance to the RBC Cup national championships in Camrose, AB., April 30 to May 8.
The Dukes secured their spot in the Dudley Hewitt Cup with a 4-2 win over the Oakville Blades on Tuesday night at home., winning the Buckland Cup. They are no strangers to this tournament. They won the Dudley Hewitt Cup back in 2003. This will be their second appearance in the 40-year history of the provincial tournament.
Dukes head coach Marty Abrams said he hasn’t been keeping an eye on the other teams in the tournament because he had his hands full with the series against Oakville.
“We will get at it, a couple days of some research and hopefully get a little head start on those guys, “ he said.
They have a week off before their first game against the Wilderness on April 19. There are a few elements in their game they plan to work on before they start the tournament.
“We need to bury our chances, we had an awful lot of chances to score again tonight. It took us a lot of work to score three, so we need to loosen up a little but and shoot the puck a little more often,” Abrams said in an interview after beating Oakville.
There is one area where Abrams believes the teams excelled.
“Our penalty killing has been outstanding all year, and you know the positive, is it has allowed us to ice the puck,” he said.
This year’s team has 13 new players on the roster. Abrams called their Buckland Cup title a reassurance that they made the right decision to join the Dukes.
“They have really jelled together as a team and with that many new players it always takes time to jell and they are certainly jelling at the right time,” he said.
After this year, the Dukes will be losing three of their four top goal scorers. Zach Blake, Sean Rudy and Steve Evans will be making their way to colleges in the U.S. Ending the season with two championship trophies and a spot in the RBC Royal Bank up would end their Junior A careers on a high note, said Abrams.