Wellington Dukes to compete for Dudley Hewitt Cup

April 23, 2018 at 12:56 pm

The Wellington Dukes Wednesday in preparation for competing for the Dudley Hewitt Cup. Photo by Evan McClelland, QNet News

By Evan McClelland

BELLEVILLE –The Wellington Dukes will be playing for the Dudley Hewitt Cup starting Tuesday, taking on the best junior hockey teams Ontario has to offer.

“For the players this is exciting. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to reach these goals,” John Druce, the Duke’s head coach, said.

The Dudley Hewitt Cup takes the winners from the Ontario Junior Hockey League, the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League and the Superior International Junior Hockey League, and pits them against each in a round robin style tournament. The winner of that tournament advances to the Canada-wide final, the Royal Bank Cup.

“This is just the next step in the process. I’m hoping to get to the (Royal Bank) Cup,” Druce said.

“You really don’t know how you match up until you get into the games and see how things go. But I feel like we have a really good chance. We’ve shown resilience, and we’ve just got better and better as the play offs have gone on.”

The tournament is set to run from May 1 to 5, and the Dukes have the opportunity to rest until then.

The Dukes got here by defeating the Georgetown Raiders 4-3 in overtime on Sunday night.

THE WELLINGTON DUKES ARE BUCKLAND CUP CHAMPIONS!!! pic.twitter.com/212kYgwNMX

— Wellington Dukes (@OJHLDukes) April 23, 2018

That gave them the Buckland Cup, awarded each year to the winner of the OJHL.

“The guys rose to the occasion. All and all getting through those three series was huge for us. Georgetown obviously had an amazing team the last few years, so beating them in six was a huge feat for us,” Druce said.

In Sunday’s game, centre Frank Pucci scored the winning goal in overtime for the Dukes.

This is the third time in franchise history that the Dukes have won the Buckland.