A strong start to the season for the Wellington Dukes continued with a workmanlike 3-1 win on Friday night over a pesky North York Rangers outfit.
Landon Marleau paced the offence with two goals and an assist to help the Dukes go to 5-1-1 on the early campaign.
In a penalty-laden first period that saw the Dukes lose veteran defenceman Brandon Mann due to a fighting major, leaving the team with just three regular blueliners, Wellington escaped with a 1-1 tie, yielding a Nathaniel Adams goal less than two minutes into the game and answering on a Jayden Levesque scramble goal on a powerplay.
The Milton native’s second of the season was assisted by Jordan Mayo and Zach Mascard, who registered his 100th OJHL point on the goal.
Another man advantage was capitalized on by Marleau, who caught Joseph D’Angelo down and out and beat him up high for his sixth of the year, assisted by Levesque and Justin Doak 4:30 into the second.
That lead hung perilously into the third, when Presley Kelly made two outstanding defensive plays to block Rangers passes across the seam before shipping the puck ahead to Mascard, who hooked a feed to Marleau for a one-timer into the mesh about halfway through the period.
The goal was Marleau’s seventh of the season, putting him into the sole goals lead in the OJHL.
The Dukes played lockdown defence the rest of the night to secure the ‘W’ and keep the Rangers winless.
Dryden Riley was a rock again in his seventh straight start with 25 saves as the Dukes outcounted the Rangers in shots 41-26.
After seven games in the first two weeks, the Dukes will relax a little before tuning up for the much-anticipated Battle of Quinte next Friday in Trenton against the Golden Hawks at 7:30 p.m.
Photo: Wellington Dukes
