The Trenton Golden Hawks and the Wellington Dukes renewed pleasantries for the first time in this young OJHL season Friday night.
It was the first of eight matches between the two on the regular season schedule for this year.
The battle of the Bay of Quinte has some added flavour this year with the return of the Hasty Ps Cup.
In the spring, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Dukes and Hawks played an eight game development series named in honour of a local military regiment.
The Hasty Ps Cup has been built into the season as a derby style competition between the local rivals, with the team that takes the most of their eight in-season matchups being crowned the Hasty Ps Cup champion.
It was a relatively quiet first period as both teams struggled to generate much offence.
Wellington took an early lead just under four minutes into the game when Jonathan Balah cleaned up a rebound to get one past Golden Hawks goaltender Ethan Taylor.
The score remained at 1-0 for the Dukes heading into the first intermission.
Both teams opened the second period with renewed energy and the captains, Dalton Bancroft for Trenton and Emmet Pierce for Wellington, put their teams on their backs.
Under 30 seconds into the period Bancroft scored to draw the game to 1-1 with assists from Jake Campbell and Aidan McIntosh.
Less than a minute later Wellington’s captain answered with a goal of his own as he shot one past Taylor, assisted by Payton Schaly and Jacob Vreugdenhill.
The trading of blows continued as less than two minutes after that Bancroft lumbered down the right wing side and pulled the puck across the crease to score a nifty backhand goal, bringing the game back to a draw.
Just under nine minutes into the second frame the excitement continued as the 6’6″ Pierce collected the puck in the slot and shot it up high on Taylor for his second goal of the night, regaining the lead for Wellington.
Not to be outdone, the Golden Hawks’ Jake LaVille scored late in the second to deadlock the game once again, bringing the score to 3-3 where it would remain heading into the second intermission.
The Dukes grabbed an early lead in the third period when Vreugdenhill scored just one minute into the final frame, taking a 4-3 lead.
A turning point in the game came around five minutes later when Dukes forward Payton Schaly snowed the Golden Hawks goaltender, earning himself a two minute unsportsmanlike conduct minor and sending the deadly Trenton power play on the ice.
The Golden Hawks didn’t squander the opportunity as McIntosh capitalized on the man advantage, knotting the game at four.
Just 30 seconds later Trenton grabbed their first lead of the game on the strength of a goal from LaVille, which would hold up as the game winner.
The Golden Hawks added two more goals, a tic-tac-toe finish by Matthew Cato on a Trenton three-on-one featuring both Mauro brothers, and a Stephen McDonald empty netter.
The loss brought the Dukes to 3-3-0-1 on the season while Trenton remained unscathed on the year, improving to 6-0-0-0.
Leading the charge for the Golden Hawks were Campbell with four assists, McDonald with three points (one goal, two assists), Bancroft and LaVille with two goals each, Aaron Jameison with two assists and Aiden McIntosh with two points (one goal, one assist).
On the Dukes’ end, Vreugdenhill led the team with three points (one goal, two assists) while Pierce had two goals and Liam Whittaker had two assists.
Trenton hits the road Saturday to take on the Toronto Patriots with the puck dropping at 7:30 p.m.
The Dukes will rest Saturday ahead of an afternoon bout on Sunday against the Lindsay Muskies at home with the game starting at 2:30.
