The resurgence of the Cobourg Cougars was on full display Monday night.
A powerful offence overseen by former Wellington Dukes captain and coach Derek Smith poured a bucketful of pucks into the Wellington net for a 9-4 trouncing in the two teams’ first meeting of the 2026-27 OJHL season.
The two teams ping-ponged goals back-and-forth in the first period twice, with the visiting Dukes starting off on the wrong foot with an early penalty and a goal against on the ensuing powerplay on a backhand goal in tight from Jonny Brooks.
Wellington kept pressing and got the equalizer through its most prolific triggerman, Landon Marleau, who skinned the ice with a one-timer teed up by Marco Wolf and Brandon Mann.
After Cobourg’s Brant Romaniuk beat Riley through the legs, Justin Doak scrummed home a four-on-four goal for his fourth of the year to knot the score at two going into the break.
The Cougars’ four-goal flurry in the second really got them going, started by another go-ahead marker off the stick of Chase Del Colombo
Cobourg capitalized again on a failed clear by the Dukes and Quinte Red Devils graduate Isaac Tracze pounced on a rebound to score at exactly the halfway mark of the period to make the score 4-2.
The lead was further spread out with tallies a minute apart from Garrett Jones and Romaniuk to chase Riley from the net.
Gavin Godick sniped home his third of the season past Carter Nadon late in the frame to cut the deficit in half for Wellington.
Any hopes of a comeback were quickly nixed 11 seconds into the third from Romaniuk, who completed his hat trick with a snapper from the slot on Mason Raycroft, before Del Colombo and Briir Long rounded out the offensive output.
In the midst of the Cougars’ high-powered operation, the Dukes did find the net on a powerplay courtesy of Cobourg native Oliver Coyle, but it did nothing to change the end result.
Cobourg outshot Wellington 35-31 on the night.
The Dukes will try to put this game away and focus on another big road tilt with the Markham Royals at 8 p.m. Friday.
Wellington’s home game originally supposed to be Thursday at 7:30 p.m. versus Georgetown has been postponed and pushed to a future date.
