The Wellington Dukes made team history and will continue along the playoff trail after a remarkable come-from-behind win over the Markham Waxers in Game 7 of their Central Canadian Hockey League East Division semi-final  series at the Duke Dome on Sunday.

The Dukes battled back from being down 3-0 in the series and for the third straight game, rallied from a two-goal deficit to win the game.

Joe Zarbo was the hero on Sunday when he scored the game-winner 3:55 into overtime to give the Dukes the unlikely win.

Anthony Bergin scored a pair of first period goals to stake the Waxers to an early lead before Sean Rudy cut the lead in half with a powerplay goal in the first period. Zarbo tied the game early in the second period and the game remain deadlocked through regulation.

Jordan Ruby made 31 saves in the win.

It was the third game in the series that went to overtime with the Waxers coming out on top in the first two.

The Dukes will open the East Division semi-final in Bowmanville against the Eagles later this week.

Game Sheet

Intelligencer story by Bruce Bell

File Photo: Aaron Bell/QuinteHockey.ca

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Trenton came into this week winning their last five games in convincing fashion.

It seemed the Golden Hawks that went on a six game winning streak is back again. The Hawks welcomed the Bramalea Blues on Friday in a game that Trenton dominated thoroughly winning 4-1.

Next on the list was traveling to Brampton to take on the Capitals on Saturday. It was a hard fought game thoroughly. The game came down to a shootout and the Hawks came up short losing 4-3 stopping the streak at six games. The Hawks started out strong and like previous games it was a hard hitting, defensive game. Jeremy McCarty opened the scoring mid way through the first period. Bramalea opened the scoring in the third to tie to the game 1-1.

Later in the period Brad Gehl, Evan Stibbard, and Travis White all got into the scoring ways to finish the game and seal the victory for Trenton. The Hawks Jamie Haines lead all scores during the game, with three points. Goalie Spencer Finney had another strong effort stopping 32 of 33 shots.

Trenton travelled to take on the Brampton Capitals the following night. The Hawks started a little slow, maybe from playing the previous night. The Capitals opened the scoring in the first Luke Laidlaw scored mid way in the first period. At the start of the second period Rob Mair for the Capitals scored to increase their lead by two. Later on in the period Stibbard scored to cut the lead down to one after two periods of play. In the third period the hawks woke up, Gehl scored to pull even with the Capitals. Four minutes after Gehl tied it up Luke Laidlaw scored for the Capitals to take the lead again. Later in the period Logan Gabel scored to tie the game up on the power-play and force the game into overtime. Overtime solved nothing and the game went to a shoot out. All three Trenton shooters missed. The Capitals Josh Ocampo was the only scoring in the shoot out and won the game.

Gabel led Trenton in scoring with one goal and one assists. New comer Brady Wilyman who was picked up by Trenton a few days earlier made his debut for the Hawks. Wilyman made 29 saves in the shoot out lose.

The Hawks (19-12-0-2) have the rest of the week off until the Villanova Knights (17-10-1-2) come back to town on Friday. Trenton then travels to face-off against the Bramalea Blues (10-17-1-2).

Photo: Brody Hamilton/QuinteHockey.ca

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The next four games for the Wellington Dukes will be played at the Dukedome, something that sits real well with the players and coaching staff as they look to improve on their modest 2-game winning streak.

A visit from the near .500 Stouffville Spirit on Friday night will give the Dukes a nice warm up as they get set for another bout with the Lindsay Muskies on Sunday.

All of the points heading into the holiday break are valuable for Wellington as they try to stay ahead of the Markham Waxers, who play three games in four nights, starting tonight.

Puck drop on Friday at the Dukedome is 7:30 with a 6:30 start on Sunday (Listen Live at 6:20pm on 800am CJBQ or www.cjbq.com.

Photo: Aaron Bell/QuinteHockey.ca

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The Trenton Golden Hawks have gotten back to their winning ways. Bringing their winning streak to five games with a 5-3 victory over the Vaughn Vipers. Later that week the Hawks dominated the Villanova Knights in a 6-2 victory. On the weekend the Hawks played a home-and-home series against the Collingwood blues, snatching two more victories 3-1 on Saturday and 3-0 on Sunday.

The Hawks took to the road at the start of the week traveling to Vaughn to take on the Vipers. This was another game were both teams are trying to get closer to the top teams in the conference. Trenton came out firing in the first period taking 17 shots on net and scoring four goals in the first 12 minutes. In the second period the Vipers scored  two goals to inch closer to the Hawks. That’s the closest Vaughn got with both teams exchanging goals in the third period.

The Hawks Brad Gehl lead all scores with three goals in the game. Louis Labbe and, Jeremy McCarty also chipped in with a goal each.

The Hawks got the next few days off before they welcomed the Villanova Knights to Trenton. Like the game they played against Vaughn, the Hawks came out full force and pressure on the Knights. In the first two periods the Hawks were all over the Knights scoring five goals on 24 shots. In the third period the Knights scored two quick goals early to cut the lead to three. McCarty scored mid way through the third to seal the deal.

Taylor Pernerowski and, McCarty lead the scores with three points each. Jamie Haines, Evan Stibbard, Joe Davies and, Gehl all got into the scoring during the game.

Over the weekend the Hawks had a home-and-home series with Collingwood blues. The first game was on Saturday in Collingwood, The game had the making of a rough hard hitting contest. It lived up to it with both teams having 30 minutes of penalties each.

There was no scoring till the second period where Gehl scored twice to give Trenton a two goal lead. In the start of the third the Blues Andrew Ciampichini scored to cut the lead down to one. Later in the third period Labbe for the Hawks scored on an empty net to put the game out of reach. Trenton starting goalie Spencer Finney had a strong performance making 38 saves on 39 shots.

In the back end of this home-and-home series. If the first game had any indication of what the second game would be like, the fireworks would fly and it be another hard hitting game between these two clubs.

The hawks opened the scoring in the first with a goal by Haines early in the first period. To give Trenton a one goal lead after one. In the second Haines scored his second goal of the night to make that Hawks up by two goals after two periods. Gauthier scored in the third period to make the final score 3-0 for Trenton.

New comer Nick Holmes made his debut for the Hawks and the Trenton faithful that game. He came out with a shut out stopping all 15 shots he faced during the game.

The Trenton Golden Hawks (18-12-0-1) get the next few days off before the welcome Barmalea Blues (9-15-1-2) to the Duncan McDonald Memorial Arena on Friday. Then on Saturday the Hawks travel to Brampton to take on the Brampton Capitals (11-16-2-1).

Photo: Brody Hamilton/QuinteHockey.ca

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The Wellington Dukes have made a major roster move as they try to stay atop the CCHL’s East Division standings.

The Dukes traded 20 year old Max Bobrow to the Pembroke Lumber Kings,  in exchange for the rights to 19 year old Tim Wolford.

Wolford, who started the year in Pembroke before leaving for Prep School, may or may not join the Dukes this season.

Bobrow,  meanwhile, leaves Wellington after two and a half seasons. He had five goals and 17 assists in 26 games for the Dukes this season.

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The Wellington Dukes have named forward Sean Rudy as their player of the Month for November.

The 19 year old Long Sault native scored seven goals and four assists in 10 games last month.

Rudy spent last season with the Cornwall Colts.

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The Trenton Golden Hawks had their losing streak increase to seven games with a 8-2 loss against the Couchiching Terriers but later on in the week the Hawks ended the losing streak with a convincing win over the Mississauga Chargers 6-4.

The Hawks started the week off traveling to Couchiching to battle the Terriers. This was a game to help out both teams get closer to the top of the conference. Trenton deiced to change things up by starting new goalie Norbert Biszczak who joined the team last week.

Unfortunately Biszczak was chased out of the net early in the second period allowing three goals on 14 shots. Trenton didn’t have an answer for league leading score Matt Smyth of Couchiching who had one goal and two assists.

Even Stibbard and Andrew Groom were the goal scores for Trenton in the lost. Jeremy McCarty helped out Trenton by getting two assists and continued his chase of Smyth for the scoring lead. McCarty trails Smyth by 22 points for first over all in the league.

The Hawks got the next few days off to getting everything straighten out and figure out how to stop this losing streak. Whatever the Hawks talked about it seemed to work and looked like they got back into the Hawks of old. First to the puck and pressure on the appointees defense.

Jeremy McCarty, Braden Curry, Jeremie Gauthier, Evan Stibbard all scored for Trenton. Brad Gehl scored two goals in the game. Jamie Haines was the leading point getter with four assists.

During the game Mississauga came out and scored early to get a two goal lead. From that point the Hawks had to battle back from two goals down all game. After Trenton fell down by two goals they amped up their play and taking it to the Chargers. Most of the game play was down in the Chargers zone for most of the game.

Not until the third period was where the pressure from the Hawks finally cracked the Charges defense. Scoring three goals in the third to take the lead and put the game out of reach. The Hawks that put together a six game winner streak earlier in the year, came back in this game.

The Hawks (14-8-0-1) have a busy week coming up play four games in the week. Starting off with travel to Vaughan to take on the Vaughan Vipers (12-9-0-5) on Monday. Coming back home on Friday to take on Villanova Knights (15-8-1-2). Then the Hawks have a home and home series with Collingwood Blues (6-21-0-0), playing in Collingwood on Saturday then back home on Sunday.

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It would be understandable if the Wellington Dukes were starting to hate shootouts.

The Dukes dropped a 3-2 shootout decision to the St. Michael’s Buzzers on Sunday at the DukeDome for their fifth straight loss. It was their fifth shootout loss of the season and second in the past three games.

Jeremy Franklin opened the scoring for the Dukes midway through the first period and then tied the game late in the second period after the Buzzers scored two in a row. After a scoreless third period and five minute overtime period, the Dukes went to a shootout for the eighth time this season.

Buzzers’ captain Daniel Ciampini – who scored a go-ahead goal for them in the second period – scored on the first shot of the game and that was enough to give St. Mike’s the win. Dukes’ Sean Rudy, Franklin and Zach Blake were all turned aside in the shootout.

Ryan Carlisle made 35 saves in the loss for the Dukes, who were scoreless on five powerplay opportunities, including a seven minute man advantage early in the second period after Michael Capicotto was called for a slashing minor and a cross checking major on the same play.

On Friday, the Lindsay Muskies opened the game with four straight goals on their way to a 6-2 win over the Dukes in Wellington. Jared Saunders finally put the home team on the board with a powerplay goal in the final seconds of the second period and CJ Dickson also counted with the man-advantage early in the third. Defenceman David Pratt had a pair of assists in the loss.

The Dukes (14-5-1-5) are still in the first place in the CCHL East Division andwill look to get their first win since a 10-4 rout over Ajax on November 6 when they host the North York Rangers Friday at the DukeDome.

Game Sheet

Photo by Aaron Bell/QuinteHockey.ca

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Alex Derlis scored the winner in a shootout to lift the Stouffville Spirit to a 3-2 won over the Wellington Dukes in CCHL play in Stouffville on Thursday.

The Dukes were down 1-0 after one period but responded with second period goals by Jake Logan and Cam Yuill to take the lead. Chris Porter tied the game for Stouffville 31 seconds into the third period.

After a scoreless overtime period, Zach Blake put the visitors ahead early in the shootout but Greg Whittle and Derlis scored to give the home side the win. Jeremy Franklin and Sean Rudy were both denied in the shootout by Stouffville goaltender Kori Coelho.

Jordan Ruby made 45 saves for the Dukes in the loss, Wellington’s third straight.

The Dukes (14-4-1-4) look to get back in the win column with the first of four straight games at home on Friday against the Lindsay Muskies (7:30 p.m. at the DukeDome).

Game Sheet

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A disaster of a second period for the Trenton Golden Hawks paved the way for an 8-2 loss to the Huntsville Otters in OPJHL play in Quinte West on Wednesday.

Joe Davies opened the scoring for the home side 5:20 into the game but the Otters responded with six straight goals to snap the win away from the Hawks.

Adam Ritchie and Dane Horvat did most of the damage for Huntsville. Ritchie scored four goals while Horvat enjoyed a five point game on a goal and four assists.

Taylor Pernerowski scored Trenton’s other goal late in the second period. Jeremy McCarty assisted on both of Trenton’s goals.

The Hawks hosted a special pre-game ceremony to honour the men and women at 8 Wing Trenton and celebrate Remembrance Day before the game.

The Hawks (13-9-0-1) have lost five of their past six games after enjoying a six-game winning streak last month. They are back in action on Friday when they host the first place Kingston Voyageurs (18-1-2-0). Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Game Sheet

Photo: Brody Hamilton/QuinteHockey.ca

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