The Wellington Dukes enjoyed a nice bounce back win Friday night after losing in overtime to the Cobourg Cougars last weekend.
The Dukes played host to the Haliburton County Huskies Friday night at Lehigh arena.
Wellington was coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the Cobourg Cougars on the second half of a season opening back-to-back.
Friday night the Dukes took control of the game early and never looked back, cruising to a 5-1 win.
Just over seven minutes into the game, the Dukes took a 1-0 lead when forward Will Mitchell got one past Huskies goalie Nicolas Heinzle, with assists coming from Bradly Darrach and Harrison Ballard.
Under ten minutes later forward Emmet Pierce added to the lead with a goal of his own and Wellington took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Dukes didn’t skip a beat coming out of the break and just three and a half minutes into the second frame Mitchell scored his second of the game with Darrach grabbing his second assist of the night.
Six minutes later Huskies forward Oliver Tarr would break the zero for Haliburton County with a goal of his own but that would prove to be the beginning and end of the scoring for the Huskies.
A mid-period goal from Payton Schaly and a third period marker by Ethan Quick would seal the deal for Wellington as they cruised to a 5-1 win.
It was a real team effort on the night as six Dukes players including Liam Whittaker (two assists), Emmet Pierce (one goal, one assist), Jacob Vreugdenhill (two assists), Bradly Darrach (two assists) and Will Mitchell (two goals) all notched two points each.
The entire effort was backed by an excellent showing by goaltender Ethan Morrow who stopped 29 of 30 shots faced on the evening.
With the win the Dukes improved to 2-0-0-1 on the season.
The Dukes are at home again Sunday for an afternoon bout against the St. Michaels Buzzers with the puck dropping at 2:30 p.m.
