CRUSHERS Scott Mackenzie jostles in the corner for a loose puck in Saturday night’s 4-2 win over the Wellington Dukes. Photo/MIKE MALONEY Orangeville Crushers kicked off 2010 in style, doubling the CCHL Eastern division leading Wellington Dukes with a 4-2 victory at the Alder Street arena Friday night.

For the Crushers, it was their fifth win in row and followed a 7-4 win over Peterborough just days earlier at the league’s Showcase Tournament held in Newmarket.

Friday night’s tilt was the first pairing of the two teams this season and both squads spent most of the first period testing each other out.

Wellington drew first blood late in the opening period. With Nicholas Vassos serving two for hooking, Dukes Joe Zarbo, assisted by Cole Murduff, cashed in the period’s only powerplay opportunity to give Wellington a 1-0 lead heading into the second.

Vassos wasn't long atoning for his earlier indiscretion, though.

Working with Krystian Yorke, the pair set up Jared Martin, who scored his fifth of the season to tie the score at 1-1 just over four minutes into the second.

Wellington again made the most of its power-play opportunities as the Zarbo, Murduff duo combined again.

This time it was Murduff doing the honours, putting one past Crushers goalie Talon Dorazio at 12:56.

Still playing a man down with Norm Ezekiel finishing up the second half of his high sticking double minor, Vassos stung the Dukes by scoring shorthanded at 14:28 even the score and send the teams into the final twenty minutes of play tied at 2-2.

With good support from the defence, Dorazio continued to stand his ground between the Orangeville pipes as Wellington pressed for the go-ahead goal that never came their way.

Instead, it was Crushers Mike Arnold that broke the deadlock on an goal assisted by Philip Teri at 10:31 that brought the crowd to life.

The Dukes stepped up their attack in search of the equalizer, but this was one Orangeville was not going to let get away.

With 5:46 remaining in regulation time, Tyson Fawcett closed the lid and nailed the win shut with his insurance marker, assisted by Trent Hawke and Griffen Lacey.

For Orangeville coach Dale Hawerchuk, the success of this team is a good sign. Noting the solid effort by the team as a whole against Wellington, he is confident the players are coming together and buying into what the coaching staff has been preaching to them all season long.

Currently sitting fourth in the West division standings just one point back of Toronto and Newmarket who are tied for second with 11 games remaining on the regular season schedule, Hawerchuk says “Right now we have to just keep on rolling. We are feeling good about ourselves and the boys are hungry.”

And just how hungry they are will be put to the test again this weekend.

Friday night sees the Crushers at home to the Hamilton Red Wings when they take to the the ice of the Alder Street Community Centre at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday finds them on the road for another meeting with the league-leading Burlington Cougars. Game time for that matchup is also set for 7:30 p.m.