Just call him ‘Stonewall Smith.’
Royden Smith made 19 saves and the Wellington Dukes got a late goal from Zach Mascard to win 2-0 in a stingy effort over the struggling Haliburton County Huskies on Wednesday night.
The shutout was Smith’s second of his young junior career to help lift the Dukes to their third straight win.
Wellington played a physical game with several huge hits thrown by the likes of Quinn McNamara, Sacha Trudel and Zack Carrier, who notched an empty-netter to extend his season-opening point streak to eight games.
The two teams were deadlocked at zeros for most of the game thanks to the brilliance of Smith, who made a massive glove save off Kieran Raynor in the second frame and Carter Nadon until Mascard deflected a McNamara pass upstaris with 3:57 to go in the third.
Kyle Grasby added the second assist and Vince Albanese got credit with the lone helper on Carrier’s empty-net goal in the final seconds.
The Dukes improve to 7-1 and handed the Huskies their sixth straight loss with the win.
Wellington is off until Saturday and the first visit in six years to the Ray Twinney Complex to take on the new edition of the Newmarket Hurricanes at 4:30 p.m.
(BROCK ORMOND)
