Another strong defensive performance advanced the Wellington Dukes to three straight victories on Saturday night.

Shane Shelest returned to the crease and outduelled Kyle Downey and the Stouffville Spirit in a 3-1 triumph on the road.

Wellington got an early strike off the stick of Ben Vreugdenhil at 7:21 of the first from Hayden Pimm and Austn Montgomery-Parsons before captain Will Whelton upped the advantage to 2-0 on a sharp shot from the top middle of the zone.

The Whitby born captain’s first of the season and the eventual game-winner was set up by Montgomery-Parsons again and Ethan Quick.

All the while, Shelest was stellar in turning aside drive after drive from the Spirit until the hosts finally broke through at the 13:46 juncture of the third on a Duncan Grube powerplay goal.

That snapped a shutout run of 196:34 for the Dukes dating back to Nov. 5 versus Markham.

Though the gap was closed a bit, Wellington never broke stride and wound up holding off Stouffville’s attack, with Shelest coming up huge with a penalty shot stop off one of the Spirit’s top scorers Peter Kioussis to preserve the ‘W.’

Sacha Trudel iced the game with an empty-netter in the final minute from Quick and Connor Hunt.

Shelest ended with a total of 28 stops for Player of the Game honours leading into the weekend finale against the Centennial Cup host Oakville Blades at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.