Story by Brock Ormond
Photo: Wellington Dukes/OJHL Images
Game 1- Spirit 3 Dukes 0
The Wellington Dukes will need to shake a Game 1 first round loss quickly.
Kyle Downey rebuffed all 34 Dukes shot attempts in a 3-0 Stouffville Spirit victory on Saturday night.
Wellington was unable to slow down a fast Spirit start, as the hosts jumped out of the gate with a 16-4 shot margin and a 1-0 lead in the first period on a marker from Josh Bonnyman with less than six minutes to play and couldn’t fully recover.
Dario Cantini went save for save with Downey in a back-and-forth second period, with the Dukes pelting an unsuccessful 18 pucks on the Spirit cage.
Stouffville’s leading regular season scorer Riley Pope got loose to score a big insurance goal within the first minute or so of the third, then followed that with a powerplay goal.
While standing in front of the Dukes net, Griffen Boyle got a stick on a Julian Demiglio one-timer to redirect the shot past Cantini at 6:25.
Cantini was strong in making 39 saves in a game where the Spirit outshot Wellington 42-34.
Game 2- Spirit 6 Dukes 0
The Wellington Dukes have been searching for offence in their best-of-seven first round OJHL series with the Stouffville Spirit, to no avail.
One day after falling 3-0 in Game 1 on the road, the Dukes took a 6-0 drubbing on the chin from the Spirit on Sunday afternoon in Game 2.
Kyle Downey picked up his second shutout of the series and third consecutive, stopping 23 shots to put a pall over the partisan crowd at Lehigh Arena.
Stouffville took full control of the wheel from the drop of the puck and never wavered, riding a stellar powerplay with four goals on eight chances and stingy defensive play to victory.
The Spirit popped in two in the first on a Julian Demiglio one-timer and a wrister from David Paglia, despite being outshot 9-4.
Stouffville continued to hang around and capitalized on a Dukes defensive zone turnover via Griffen Boyle, who pocketed his second of the playoffs at 14:33 of the middle frame.
Discipline became a hangup for the Dukes in the third and Stouffville took further advantage with Josh Bonnyman, Zack Corte and Max Davidson all scoring on powerplays to punctate the win.
The Spirit lead the series 2-0 going back to Stouffville Arena for Game 3 on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
