OHJL puts up its Dukes
Frank Pucci played 48 games in his fourth and final season in junior B hockey with the Niagara Falls Canucks.
Pucci, who is committed to taking his game to the next level with the Brock Badgers after leading the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League in goals, added nine before games in the Golden Horseshoe Conference.
All in all, a workload deserving of some rest and time away from the rink.
However, that’s not how the 21-year-old Sault Ste. Marie native saw it after the Canucks were eliminated from the junior B playoffs by the Caledonia Corvairs in a five-game semifinal.
Canucks captain Andrew Barbeau, also from Sault Ste. Marie and also graduating from the junior B ranks, also wasn’t through with playing hockey this season.
They both joined the Wellington Dukes of the Ontario Hockey Junior Hockey and this week are in Dryden, Ont., competing in the Central Canadian Junior A Championship.
Winner of the four-team tournament receives the Dudley-Hewitt Cup and advances to represent the province in the national championships for the RBC Bank Cup.
After scoring 42 goals in league play and adding two more in the playoffs for the Canucks, Pucci needed only four games to find the back of net for his new team.
He scored two more in the Ontario Junior Hockey League final against the Georgetown Raiders giving him three goals in 14 playoff games.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pound forward’s last goal was especially dramatic. Scored 8:19 into the first overtime, the one-timer gave the Dukes a 4-3 victory for the Buckland Cup and a ticket to the Dudley-Hewitt Cup tournament.
Canucks owner-head coach
Frank Pietrangelo hopes his two former lettermen — Barbeau, team captain; Pucci, alternate captain — can end their junior careers with a national championship.
“I’m glad to see these guys finishing their junior careers this way,” he said. “They are both great people, tremendous leaders both on and off the ice, great role models for our younger players and elite hockey players.
“Wellington got two of the very best.”
Barbeau, a 5-foot-11, 205-pound defenceman, was team captain in each of his final two years with the Canucks. Last season the playmaking rearguard had two goals and 45 assists in 50 games in league play, and was equally productive in the playoffs adding one goals and 10 assists in nine games.
Barbeau has one goal in 14 games in a Dukes uniform heading into this week’s provincial qualifier in northeastern Ontario.
Wellington opened the tournament Tuesday night against the host Dryden IceDogs, champions for the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) for the second year in a row.
Tuesday’s other Day 1 matchup
‘‘ “They are both great people, tremendous leaders both on and off the ice, great role models for our younger players and elite hockey players.”
FRANK PIETRANGELO Niagara Falls Canucks owner-head coach
in the single round-robin playdown had the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League champion Cochrane Crush taking on the second seed from the SIJHL, the Thunder Bay North Stars.
Wellington plays Thunder Bay Wednesday and Cochrane Thursday to wrap up pool play.
First-place finisher in the round robin earns a bye into Saturday’s final, with the secondand third-place teams meeting in a semifinal game Friday night.
Winner advances to the RBC Cup May 12-20 in Chilliwack, B.C.
Wellington finished the regular season first in the OJHL’s East Division with a 33-13-3-5 record, while Cochrane, 36-17-2-1.
Dryden, 40-8-6-2; finished first in the host league, and Thunder Bay, 38-13-4-1, third.