Hockey in Hamilton

The Hamilton Dukes – Two seasons of frustration
Former Marlie team never comfortable in Hamilton

Tony Iob of the Soo Greyhounds scores his second goal over Dukes’ netminder George Dourian in a March 1991 playoff game. Soo won the contest 4-3 in overtime to take a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven OHL Emms Division playoffs. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator.

Darren Bell of the Dukes displays his reaction after his team lost 3-2 to the Soo Greyhounds in the final division playoff game. The win gave the Greyhounds a 4-0 sweep of the series. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator

Alex Stojanov played three seasons in the NHL after his time with the Dukes. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator

Dukes coach Jay Johnston. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator

They were only in Hamilton for two seasons, and the Hamilton Dukes never made their mark in Hamilton hockey history.

A variety of reasons were cited for the team’s poor record, including low fan attendance, inexperienced players, and team injuries.

The Toronto Marlies of the OHL were moved to Hamilton for the 1989-1990 season. The club was called the Dukes, a name which tied it to the original Toronto franchise, named after the Duke of Marlborough. When majority owners Mario Cupido, Jack Pelech, and Ron Cupido moved the team to Hamilton, it was hoped fans would flock to Copps Coliseum to watch the new OHL club.

But it never happened, and the average 1991 season attendance was about 1200 fans per game, the lowest in the league.

In the 66 games played the first season, the Dukes had an 11-49-6 record, and placed seventh in the Leyden Division.

For the 1990-91 season, the team’s record was 17-43-6, for sixth spot in the standings.
Coach Jay Johnston shouldered some of the blame for the team, but was a frustrated as the rest of his club.

“We’ve got a young club and you’ve got to be patient with them,” Johnston is quoted as saying in October of 1990. “I admit we haven’t played well. We’ve been sporadic. Whether it’s lack of effort of lack of inspiration, we continue to dig holes for ourselves.”

In a typical game of the previous season, Johnston blamed major penalties in an 8-3 loss to the Cornwall Royals in February of 1990.

“We killed ourselves with stupid penalties,” coach Johnston said after the game. “It was a lack of self-discipline on those two five-minute penalties.”

Johnston continued to comment after the game, which dropped the Dukes 20 points behind the sixth-place Royals with only 12 games remaining and out of any post-season action as only the top six teams qualified for Leyden Division playoffs.

“As far as I was concerned, when things were even-up we out-played them. And it could have been even more of a lead for us if Brad Gratton hadn’t hit the crossbar on a breakaway.”

The game had been tied 2-2 when late in the second period Cornwall had four consecutive power-play goals and then three more goals in the third.

A lack of fan support was also a problem for the Dukes. The game attendance had been lower than 2000 during the season, and co-owner Mario Cupido hinted the franchise would leave Hamilton if more paying customers did not show up.

And although the Dukes qualified for the Emms Division playoffs for the 1990-91 season, the team lost to the Sault Saint Marie Greyhounds in four games straight.

It was the finish for the Dukes in Hamilton, and the club relocated in Guelph, to become the Guelph Storm.

It was a frustrating and disappointing two seasons where the club’s luck seemed to be all bad, and there were never any positive aspects.

“It seemed to end the same way it started,” said Pelech late in March of 1991 after substantial financial losses resulted in selling the franchise. “What conceivably could go wrong went wrong.

"We started (the franchise) with optimistic expectations,” Pelech continued. “We were hopeful it would take hold but it never did. The depressing aspects were more frequent that the uplifting ones.”

There were several players with the Dukes who went on to major hockey careers. After a 25-goal year with the Dukes, Alek Stojanov went to the Vancouver Canucks in the 1991 NHL draft, playing three seasons with the Canucks and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jeff Bes went on to play for East Coast Hockey League teams such as the Mississippi Sea Wolves and the Dayton Bombers, as well as the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League. Kayle Short played with the AHL’s Portland Pirates and the Canadian National Team.

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