The Trenton Golden Hawks are flying high after remaining undefeated through seven games with two big weekend wins.
After beating Bay of Quinte rivals the Wellington Dukes Friday night in the first game of the in-season derby style Hasty Ps Cup, Trenton travelled to Toronto on Saturday to take on the Toronto Patriots.
The Golden Hawks continued their early season penchant for scoring early and often as forward Matthew Cato scored his sixth goal in seven games just 3:14 into the first frame.
The Patriots answered almost exactly six minutes later when Carter Diceman managed to get one past G-Hawks goalie Will Nguyen and after Trenton defenceman Nathan Oickle took a tripping penalty, Toronto took the lead with a Ryan Forberg power play goal.
Not to be outdone, the Golden Hawks evened the game with under two minutes left in the first period when Dalton Bancroft, who leads the team in points, and Caden Kekewich assisted on a goal by Aiden McIntosh.
The first period was a spirited one with 20 minutes in penalties being dished out between both teams.
Golden Hawks captain Bancroft added to his team lead in points with his second point of the game and fifth goal of the season just 25 seconds into the second period to regain the lead, bringing the score to 3-2.
After that, the game was all Trenton.
Before the second period finished, Aiden McIntosh added his second goal of the game on the power play and just minutes later Jake LaVille added a power play goal of his own to make it a 5-2 Trenton lead.
Toronto forward Justin Legault scored late in the second to make it 5-3, but Trenton shut it down after and that would prove to be the final.
There were another 26 penalty minutes dished out between the two teams in the second period for a total of 46 on the game.
The third period was a defensive affair devoid of any penalties or goals, contrary to the first two, and Trenton waltzed into a 7-0 record on the year with the 5-3 road win.
Nguyen held strong in the crease with 29 saves on 32 shots faced while at the other end Trenton fired 43 shots of their own.
For his night, Bancroft chipped in a goal and two assists for three points followed by Cato, McIntosh, Oickle and Stephen McDonald all with two points each.
The Golden Hawks will look to continue the early season success with two games this coming week, Thursday in Caledon against the winless Admirals at 8 p.m. and Friday at home against the Mississauga Chargers at 7:30 p.m.
