Ontario Hockey Association

Winning streaks, losing streaks — that’s the way the regular season went for the Wellesley Applejacks. Either they managed to string some wins together, or couldn’t seem to get out of a slump — resulting in a inconsistent season. Now that the playoffs are before them, the latest losing skid perhaps came at a good time — to end the regular season and go on a winning streak for the post-season. The ’Jacks ended the regular season with a three-game home stand, but only earned a point with a shootout loss to the St. George Dukes. Wellesley started the weekend off on Friday, Feb. 8 against the Burford Bulldogs. The ’Jacks lost 7-4. Burford held a 3-1 lead after the first period. All three of the Bulldogs’ goals came on the power play. Dan Berwick scored the Wellesley goal, on the power play. Wes Hauck and Scott Litt had the assists. The first even-strength goal of the game came in the second period, and also gave Burford a 4-1 lead 1:45 into the period. Just under a minute later, the Bulldogs took a 5-1 lead after picking off the puck at the blue-line. After the goal, Luke Zehr was pulled from the ’Jacks’ net in favour of Chris Russwurm. Zehr had faced 20 shots in his 25-minute stint in net, allowing five goals. Wellesley got down to business after the goaltender change, getting goals at 16:50 and 11:56 to draw the game to 5-3. Chris Armstrong scored from Trevor Nissen and Pat Doyle on the power play. That goal was followed by Berwick’s second goal of the night, off passes from Will Metske and Mike Fisher. Before the end of the second, Burford would retake their three-goal lead. There wasn’t too much action in the third period, except for a fight at 7:27 between Brock Gerber and Jeremy Vanderheyden. The teams traded goals this period, with Litt getting the ’Jacks’ fourth of the game, to make it 6-4. Fisher drew the lone assist. Two minutes later, Burford put the game once again out of reach. The next night (Saturday, Feb. 9) Wellesley hosted the Port Dover Sailors, losing 5-3. Wellesley held a 2-0 lead after the first period, with goals by Fisher and Hauck — one on the power play and one short handed. Assists were by Brady Hauck, Scott Hanley and Armstrong. Port Dover scored three straight goals in the second period to take the 3-2 lead after 40 minutes. Wes Hauck managed to tie the game back up in the third period, at 18:11 from Ben Jefferies and Pat Doyle. That was shortlived, though, as the Sailors scored two quick goals, 26 seconds apart, for the win. Russwurm stopped 27 of the 32 shots he faced in the loss. The ’Jacks had 38 shots on net over the game. St. George squeaked out a shootout victory on Sunday, Feb. 10 rounding out Wellesley’s losing weekend. The Dukes held a 1-0 lead after the first period. After 40 minutes, the game was tied 2-2. Metske scored for Wellesley from Hanley and Owen Engel at 6:01. Port Dover managed to take the lead again a couple of minutes later, before Doyle connected on passes from Wes Hauck and Gerber to tie the game back up. The third period solved nothing. It was the same with overtime, which led to the shootout. Atchison and Hauck weren’t able to beat the Sailors’ goaltender while Zehr allowed just one goal in three chances a-gainst him for the Port Dover win. As of press time, the playoff schedule wasn’t released. When the schedule be-comes available it will be posted at www.elmiraindependent.com.