The Wellington Dukes got back on the right track with a 7-1 downing of the North York Rangers on Thursday night.
Seven different players lit up Lehigh Arena with goals, including Zack Carrier’s team-leading 32nd of the year and Lorne Miles first in the OJHL.
Wellington erased a breakaway goal from Kyson Patterson 3:30 into the game with Carrier’s tally, beating North York goalie Reid Thomas through the legs less than a minute later.
Liam Campbell buried a Will Mitchell feed for his 22nd of the season before Cooper Woron unscrambled a rebound for his fifth to put Wellington ahead for the rest of the night.
Any hopes the Rangers had of clawing back into the game were dashed 12 seconds into the second period on a Cole Ellis bouncer from outside the North York blueline for his eighth of the season.
Halfway through the frame, Sacha Trudel pulled off a quintessential sequence, drilling a Ranger player into the boards in his own end, then turned on the jets to burst past the North York defence in the offensive zone and tucking the puck through Thomas’ pads for his 15th of the season.
Evan Erwin gave a rebound a good whack to bulge the twine for his 13th of the year in the third and Miles tacked on one more for good measure, burying a second chance effort for his first career goal in junior hockey.
The 16-year-old from Carrying Place earned first star honours for that milestone.
Zach Mascard finished with three assists, Mitchell, Cain Tucker and Tristan Williams adding two.
The Dukes outshot the Rangers 44-33. Royden Smith made 32 stops as the Dukes rebounded from two tough losses to improve to 24-16-3-5.
Next game is Saturday at 4 p.m. in Minden against the Haliburton County Huskies.


