By Alex Mahar [1]
BELLEVILLE – The Wellington Dukes [2]took a 3-0 first round series stranglehold over the Cougars [3] Monday night with a 5-3 win in Cobourg.
Mac Lowry scored less than two minutes into the game for the Cougars, but Wellington battled back in the first period with goals from Ben Woodhouse, Jake Gagnon and Dawson Ellis to take a 3-2 lead after one period of play.
After 1, the Dukes lead @CougarsHockey [4] 3-2! Ben Woodhouse, @jakegagnon11 [5] and @dawsonellis2 [6] scored for the Dukes while Mac Lowry and Kenny Styles scored for Cobourg. Shots on goal were 15-11 for Wellington in the period
— Wellington Dukes (@OJHLDukes) March 3, 2020 [7]
Dylan Massie scored the loan goal of the second period for Wellington to take a 4-2 lead.
🚨#DukesScore [8]🚨 @MassieDylan [9] scores his 1st goal of the playoffs to make it 4-2!! @breckles2000 [10] and @NoahMassie7 draw assists at 4:18
— Wellington Dukes (@OJHLDukes) March 3, 2020 [11]
Early in the third period, Dan Panetta scored to make it 5-2 Dukes.
https://twitter.com/OJHLDukes/status/1234658028122714112
Lowry added a late third period goal for the Cougars, but it wasn’t enough as Wellington took a 3-0 series lead.
Gagnon, Massie and Woodhouse all finished the night with a goal and an assist while Matt Dunsmoor made 16 saves on 19 shots in goal for his third win of the postseason.
The Dukes took game one, 3-0, on Friday night, then won game two, 4-3, in overtime on Sunday night.
Wellington will go for a best-of-seven series sweep on Wednesday night in Cobourg at 8 p.m.