Made my first trip to the Duke Dome in this young season to watch, in my opinion, two of the top teams in Canada over the last couple of seasons, and to my surprise, Wellington came out on top in a big way.

Wellington's goaltender was great tonight. I asked a fan who seemed to be in the know about why he had yet to play for the team this season and he told me he had just from back from the QMJHL with Hull. A very solid goaltender who plays positionally sound and has great recovery ability. I was also impressed with the play of the younger players who I have never heard of tonight. Not that they are no namers just that I have yet to see them in action. Sean Rudy and Jared Saunders really stood out. Saunders, an excellent penalty killer with great speed with be a huge asset to Wellington if he makes the team. Rudy, who whenever in the offensive zone, is always around the net creating scoring chances for himself and his team mates. The kid has great size and is a great skater. He could be a handful for opposing teams.

As far as the returning players go, I thought Stetham, Bobrow and Pratt all had great games. Pratt scored two great goals off absolute rockets which the Lumberkings goalie didn't have a chance on. Stetham and Bobrow showed tonight that they have that extra year under their belts as opposed to other players on the ice. They seemed to be a little bit faster then some of the rookies but you come to expect that.

All in all a great game by the Dukes last night. May be down Sunday to see the Brockville Braves

wow was i wrong on this one.

just by looking at the lumber kings in the warm up, bigger bigger bigger.
watching the play unfold early in the game i felt the dukes would have their hands full in this game.

the lumber kings looked faster and a little more skilled with the puck.

goaltending the big difference in this one,at one point in the game wellington was being out shot 26 to 12 . dukes net minder play very well.

penalty trouble did not seem to bother the dukes a whole lot killing off 2- 5 on threes and a couple of back to back minors,while scoring short handed.

good fast game to watch

i will expect pembroke to be at the top of the pile in their leauge again this season.
once this team puts all the pieces together they will be hard to beat.

tic toc tic toc

If Saunders is as good as you have expressed why do you put the rider "if he makes the team"?
With the Dukes having to replace 12 players and all of their scoring punch he should be a shoe in based on your assessment.

I believe MA said something about a player that they have to be fulltime players. They can't pick and choose which nights to play. The night I watched the game he played great, but as I have only seen the one game I cannot say that it wasn't just a good game.

From what I saw he would be on the team if plays like that all the time

Did you take in the games vs. Brockville?