Story by Brock Ormond
Photo: Ed McPherson/OJHL Images
A hard-working effort against one of the OJHL’s best teams came up just a little short for the Wellington Dukes on Friday night.
Wellington fell to the Markham Royals 4-3 in a back-and-forth contest to begin a busy Thanksgiving weekend, dropping their fourth consecutive game to fall to 5-5-0-2 on the season.
The Dukes started fast on a connection between Zander Latreille and Austin Montgomery-Parsons, with the latter finishing for his fifth of the season.
Logan Goodwin added the secondary assist at 2:28.
The Royals showed off their quick-strike offence with Chris Engelbert (on a powerplay) and Ryan Forberg firing home back-to-back markers to grab the lead.
Period two was more successful for Wellington, with Cory Jewitt banging one home past Markham goalie Chris Quizi at 1:43 from Connor Hunt and Pana Efraimidis and Ethan Quick rifling home a Will Mitchell feed from the close slot for a powerplay goal in the later stages at 16:42.
Austin Montgomery-Parsons got an assist on that marker as well, giving the Dukes some momentum heading into the final frame.
For the second straight game however, the Dukes were unable to muster a whole ton of chances in the third period, being held to seven shots as the Royals worked back into the lead to stay.
Ben Lalkin tied the game early in the third on a powerplay carried over from the previous period and after the Dukes killed off a full two-minute, two-man disadvantage, were beaten on another powerplay on a goal by Ray Hou.
Wellington pressed hard for the tying goal, but were unable to overcome the Royals, with Quick’s tight chance in the dying seconds pointed to as the best opportunity.
The Dukes hope to bring that determined effort into a road contest in Minden against the Haliburton County Huskies on Saturday at 4 p.m.
