NEWS

By Jim Mason

The Wellington Dukes begin play at the 2018 RBC Cup tournament in Chilliwack, BC, today.

The Dukes and Ottawa Jr. Senators open the five-team event with an all-Ontario tilt at 5 p.m. (ET).

Look for cloudy skies in the Dukes’ forecast for the week.

That’s how the boys from The County roll.

Asked to summarize his team’s ride through four rounds of playoffs in the Ontario Junior Hockey League and last weekend’s Dudley-Hewitt Cup, the Central Canada championships, head coach John Druce has your word for the day.

“Resilience, I guess,” the former NHLer said before his team headed west on another jet in search of another championship.

“We’ve been resilient all the way. We don’t like to do it the easy way. That’s been a common theme; a few people have said that.”

Pre-Chilliwack, they’ve been in 30 playoff games already.

Let’s recap, shall we?

The upstart Pickering Panthers took the Dukes to seven games in the opening round of the OJHL playoffs, which began in Wellington March 2.

In Round 2, the Newmarket Hurricanes led the Dukes three games to one. One of the Newmarket victories was an 8-1 pounding. An all-York Region series between the Hurricanes and Aurora Tigers looked likely.

It didn’t happen. The Dukes won the final three games of the seven – all by 3-2 scores.

The Dukes only needed five games to eliminate Aurora, the only team in the North-East with a better regular-season record, in the conference final.

It took six games in the OJHL final against the Georgetown Raiders but the two Wellington losses were 8-2 and 6-0 shellackings.

That final game of the OJHL playoff season, April 22 in Wellington, may have summed up the Dukes season most eloquently.

With the home squad down 2-0 after the first period, the standing-room-only Essroc Arena was quieter than a library. That was before the Dukes scored three straight goals, only to see the Raiders force overtime – of course – which was ended by home team to the approval of most of the 1,115 in the stands.

“We work hard, we create opportunities, we do a good a job … but when we get off our game a little, we need refocusing,” said Druce. “I don’t know, but we just seem to find a way.”

It was more of the same at the four-team Dudley-Hewitt Cup in Dryden, 1,896 km from the friendly confines of Prince Edward County.

The Dukes opened the tourney with a 4-1 loss to the home team, the Superior league champion GM Ice Dogs, then reeled off four straight wins – including a 7-4 victory over the same Dogs in the championship game last Saturday.

“Facing adversity as you go through, it helps sometimes,” said Druce. “You can’t be overconfident all the time. It gives you a little reality check, keeps you awake and focused on your task.”

Druce knows the RBC Cup.

In his first full year of coaching at any level, he led the host Cobourg Cougars to the national championship last May.

Dumped as Cobourg head coach last Halloween, he landed in Wellington in January when the Dukes opted for changes of their own.

Those 2016-17 Cobourg Cougars were swept in the OJHL conference final by Trenton – after eliminating Wellington in five games in the second round of the league playoffs.

They lost only once at the RBC Cup, in overtime, and won the championship game in O.T., too.

TSN and RDS will broadcast the RBC Cup championship game, May 20 at 8 p.m. ET, while all other games will be available via live stream at HockeyCanada.ca/RBCCup.