Tough penalties taken by the Wellington Dukes burned them in Game 1 versus the Pickering Panthers.
The ‘Cats scored twice on the powerplay and withstood the pesky Dukes in a 6-3 victory on Friday night.
The evening started out on the right foot for Wellington, as Zack Carrier almost immediately got the Dukes’ heated up with a goal 1:14 into the game, surprising Anthony Sciere with a quick shot that beat the Pickering goalie from Sacha Trudel and Tristan Williams.
The rest of the frame was all Pickering though, with ex-Duke Kyle Kavc evening the score, Matt Indovina banking a shot off Dryden Riley and in to give the Panthers a lead and Jake Mallory finding the back of the net with three seconds left in the period.
The Dukes showed no signs of rust after a delay due to an ice issue at the Chestnut Hill Recreation Complex early in the second, getting a rebound goal off the stick of Zach Mascard following a net drive by Cole Ellis to cut the deficit to one.
Carrier buried his second of the game out of a scramble in the crease area after the puck spurted out to him standing in the slot later in the period from Trudel and Kyle Grasby, giving Wellington some even standing.
Pickering was not about to leave well enough alone though, taking advantage of a Dukes penalty with about a minute to go through Mallory’s second of the game.
The simple plays sometimes work better and that adage was fully taken in by Indovina with exactly nine minutes left in the third.
He turned around at the offensive blueline and sent a long toss shot toward the Dukes net that eluded Riley to rebuild Pickering’s two-goal lead.
An empty-netter from Alex Colangelo salted away the win, in a game where the Panthers dominated in shots 49-23 and wore the Dukes down.
Wellington will have a day to regroup before a Game 2 showdown at Lehigh Arena at 7:30 p.m. Friday night, where the maple syrup-shaking crowd will surely be a relief to the team as it looks to tie the series.
