WELLINGTON – The Wellington Dukes struck quickly and never trailed en route to a 4-1 triumph over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners Tuesday evening at Essroc Arena at the Dudley-Hewitt Cup Central Canada Jr. A championship in Wellington, Ont.
Showing no signs on rust after having not played since March 7 after a first round playoff ouster, the Dukes connected 21 seconds after the opening face-off as Wellington captain Erick Delaurentis redirected a left point blast from defenceman Kyle Paat past Kirkland Lake starter Jeremy Pominville.
Penalty trouble caused the Gold Miners further issues in the latter stages of the opening stanza as Mike Soucier drove hard down the left side and went upstairs, short side, on Pominville during a two-man advantage that Wellington enjoyed.
Tyson Teichmann was relatively untested in the first period facing only four shots against in the Dukes net while his side fired 12 of their own.
Wellington continued to roll in the second session running their lead to 3-0 three and a half minutes in as Matt Lippa cruised down the right side and unleashed a low blast that beat Pominville cleanly from the face-off dot.
Kirkland Lake got on the board during a power play of their own as Damon MacEachern banked in a pass in front off of a Wellington defender and through the legs of Teichmann at 10:44 to make it a two-goal game after 40 minutes.
The Dukes then put the game away in the final frame courtesy of Steven Deeg at 7:51 as they notched their second tally of the night while the Gold Miners had two skaters in the box.
Final shots on goal were 43-24 in favour of the Dukes.
Player of the game honours went to Mike Robinson of Wellington and Kirkland Lake’s MacEachern.
The Gold Miners return to game action Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. as they meet the 1-0 Toronto Lakeshore Patriots (OJHL) who opened with a 4-1 triumph over the Fort Frances Lakers (SIJHL) in the DHC opener.
You can follow the Dudley-Hewitt Cup online via FASTHockey.com on a pay-per-view basis on through the event website at www.dudleyhewittcup2014.com.
