The Pickering Panthers continued their impressive February run with a dominant 7-2 win over the Wellington Dukes on Friday night at Lehigh Arena. A strong first period set the tone for the Panthers, as Joe Cadorin opened the scoring on the power play, netting his 14th of the season, assisted by Wilson and McLennan at 10:35. Less than a minute later, Blake Wright extended the lead, burying a feed from Zhou and Colangelo to make it 2-0 after one.
Wellington responded in the second period with a power-play goal from McNeil at 9:20, but Pickering quickly restored their two-goal lead as Cadorin struck again at 12:31, this time assisted by Zhang and Lang. Wellington closed the gap to 3-2 with a power-play goal from Levesque at 17:06, but that was as close as they would get.
The third period was all Panthers, as they erupted for four goals. Wilson made it 4-2 at 2:58, converting on a pass from Ethier and Wright. Binnie followed with his 14th of the season at 8:54, assisted by Zhou. A power-play goal from Stewart at 9:57, set up by Zhang and Binnie, pushed the lead further. Wright capped off the scoring at 16:11 with his second of the game, a power-play marker assisted by Wilson and Colangelo.
Gavin Betts was solid in goal, stopping 32 of 34 shots for his sixth win of the season. The Panthers’ power play was clicking, going 3-for-7, while Wellington went 2-for-5 with the man advantage.
With the win, Pickering improves their positioning in the standings as they look ahead to their next matchup. The Panthers will hit the road on Sunday, February 16th, to face the North York Rangers at 2:30 PM.
