February 2, 2024
By Brock Ormond
Photo: Wellington Dukes/OJHL Images
The Wellington Dukes exploded on offence to hand the North York Rangers an unlucky 13th loss in a row on Thursday night.
The Dukes piled 11 goals in the North York net in an 11-4 shellacking of the last-place Rangers, with Ryan Schaap and Austin Montgomery-Parsons each recording four points.
Wellington went ahead 4-1 after one thanks to goals from Schaap, Will Mitchell, Zander Latreille, and Connor Hunt.
They then tacked on three more in the second thanks to a sharp wrister from Cory Jewitt, a hard forecheck that led to a Ben Vreugdenhil tally, and a Caleb MacDonald marker, ending the period with a 7-3 lead.
North York switched goalies from Matteo Porporino to U18 AAA callup Noah Blitstein in the third, but the Dukes kept inflicting damage, stringing together four more goals.
Two came from Connor Loerzel, with the others being scored by Colin Smith and Montgomery-Parsons.
Every Duke but two had at least one point, as Wellington outshot North York 44-23.
Shane Shelest got the victory to help the Dukes improve to 29-16-0-2 on the year with 60 points and tighten their grip on second place in the East Conference.
Wellington is off for the entire weekend before a road game in Cobourg versus the Cougars at 7 p.m. Monday.