Story by Brock Ormond
Photo: Wellington Dukes/OJHL Images
The Wellington Dukes poured on some more late-game magic on Sunday afternoon in a 5-4 overtime win over the St. Michael’s Buzzers.
Ben Vreugdenhil bookended the scoring, finishing another late comeback effort with the overtime winner as the Dukes wiped away a two-goal deficit two days after tying the game late and then beating the Stouffville Spirit by the same score at home.
The Frankford resident deposited the game’s opening goal on a powerplay from Cory Jewitt and Zander Latreille at 6:13 of the first.
St. Mike’s got a couple of answers courtesy of Gabriel Flammia and Max Mahoney in the latter half of the frame.
After Hudson Cummins put the Buzzers up by two midway through the second, Colin Smith cut into St. Mike’s lead with a shorthanded counter at 11:18 from Jared McNeil.
Toby Adamson re-established the two-goal bulge on a later powerplay and St. Mike’s continued to sit on that lead for much of the remaining regulation portion of the day until the Dukes dug deep into their bench and pulled another rabbit out of the hat.
With goaltender Noah Davis on the bench for an extra skater, Tyler Tsoukalas deflected home his second of the season off a Riley Noble wrister to pull the Dukes to within one with 2:19 left in regulation.
Cole Ellis added the second helper.
That was followed by another McNeil equalizer less than a minute later from Latreille and Ryan Schaap, before Vreugdenhil polished off the comeback by burying a shot off a left wing rush from Noble in the extra session.
Wellington outshot St. Mike’s 42-29 in winning its fifth straight game on another incredibly resilient effort.
Davis made 25 saves to help Wellington go to 9-5 on the season and bring some huge momentum into Round 1 of the Battle of Quinte in Trenton against the Golden Hawks at 7:30 p.m. Friday night.
