The Wellington Dukes showed a lot of fight right down to the end, but couldn’t find a hole on Anthony Sciere and the Pickering Panthers.
Despite outshooting Pickering 37-35, the visiting goaltender stole the show with a shutout to eliminate the Dukes from the Buckland Cup Playoffs 2-0 in Game 4 on Friday night.
The other major player for Pickering was a former Duke, Kyle Kavc, who burned his old team in his former stomping grounds with both Panther markers.
Pickering nabbed control of the game and never entirely relinquished it less than two minutes in when Landen Stevens spotted Kavc sneaking into the slot and hit him for the conversion.
Six-and-a-half minutes into the second, the Oxford, Michigan native cut loose again, being sprung by Kyle Secko for a partial break and the Kyle connection proved a success when Kavc beat Dryden Riley over the catching hand to sit the Panthers firmly in the driver’s seat.
The Dukes had their chances, including hitting a post in the dying seconds of the second frame and missing on a penalty shot through Liam Campbell and a Zack Carrier partial break in the third.
The end of the game got wild, with multiple fights and chaos in the final minutes thinning down both benches, but the Panthers ultimately came out the winners.
Riley made 33 saves as part of an overall brilliant series where he gave the Dukes a chance.
The Dukes wish their fans a great spring and summer and look forward to next season.
