The Wellington Dukes got a good pre-postseason test against another strong West Conference opponent.
The Collingwood Blues outshot the Dukes 50-23 and won 5-2 on Tuesday night at Eddie Bush Memorial Arena.
Collingwood got on the board first on a Talan Palmer goal with a little more than three minutes to go, while outshooting Wellington 16-3, but the stellar play of Royden Smith kept the Blues at bay.
The Dukes stemmed the Blues tide for most of the second period and began to chip away in shots before Landon Marleau got on the board with 3:37 to go in the second with his 22nd of the season.
Lorne Miles and Zach Mascard drew the helpers.
Collingwood came through to re-take the lead a minute later through Declan Bowmaster, before Brayden Stumpf went upstairs on Smith in the waning seconds of the period for what turned out to be a huge goal to win the game.
The Blues tacked on two more from Wyatt Jinman and Tyler Cristofaro, with Sacha Trudel’s 17th of the season trimming the gap late from Blake Berthiaume and Marleau.
The Dukes fall to 26-19-4-5 on the season ahead of their final regular season road game versus the Leamington Flyers at 7:10 p.m. on Thursday.
