Wellington Dukes | |
---|---|
City | Wellington, Ontario, Canada |
League | Ontario Junior Hockey League |
Founded | Prior to 1977 |
Home arena | Wellington & District Community Centre |
Colours |
Red, Yellow, and Blue |
General manager | Marty Abrams |
Head coach | Marty Abrams |
Affiliates |
Hamilton Bulldogs (OHL) Picton Pirates (EBJCHL) |
Franchise history | |
1989 | merged w/ Belleville Bobcats |
The Wellington Dukes are a Junior "A" ice hockey team from Wellington, Ontario, Canada. They are in the Eastern Division of the Ontario Junior Hockey League and used to be a part of the Metro Junior A Hockey League. Originally a Junior C team in the 1970s and 1980s, the Dukes merged with the neighbouring Jr. B Belleville Bobcats and took their place in the Metro League. The Dukes have won the Dudley Hewitt Cup as Central Canadian Junior A Champions twice (2003, 2011).
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the Wellington Dukes were members of the Quinte-St. Lawrence Junior C Hockey League. The league folded in 1986. The Dukes joined the Central Junior C Hockey League in 1986. They moved up to Metro "B" in 1989 when they took over the Belleville Bobcats franchise, and moved up to Junior "A" in 1991. The Dukes have been in the OPJHL since 1998. In 2003, the Dukes defeated the Aurora Tigers 4-games-to-2 to win the Frank L. Buckland Trophy. At the Dudley Hewitt Cup tournament, the Dukes first beat the Fort Frances Borderland Thunder of the Superior International Junior Hockey League by a score of 7-1. They were defeated 2-1 by the North Bay Skyhawks of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. They then defeated the Thunder Bay Bulldogs of the SIJHL 7-4 to finish second in the round robin. In the semi-final, the Dukes defeated Fort Frances 4-2. In the final, they defeated the North Bay Skyhawks by a convincing score of 4-0 to win the Central Canadian Championship.