The Trenton Golden Hawks, coming off a tough 6-3 loss to the Wellington Dukes, bounced back nicely and cruised to a 6-2 win over the Haliburton County Huskies Saturday night on the road.
The last time the two teams met, the Huskies squeaked out a 2-1 win at the Duncan McDonald Memorial Community Gardens in Trenton.
Saturday night was a different story entirely.
The Golden Hawks started the game on their heels as forward Trystan Mughal earned a double minor penalty for kneeing just 46 seconds into the game, sending the Huskies to an extended power play.
It wasn’t long before Haliburton County’s Lucas Stevenson capitalized and scored to take an early 1-0 Huskies lead with a power play marker.
Five minutes after that, Trenton’s Aiden McIntosh answered for the Golden Hawks to knot the game at one with his team-leading 11th goal of the year with assists coming from Dalton Bancroft and Sami Douglas-Najem.
The tie score held into the first intermission.
In the second period it wasn’t until the final five minutes of the frame when the tie was finally broken.
Following a Golden Hawks bench minor for too many men, forward Jake LaVille scored short handed with help from Jordyn Mughal to make it 2-1 Trenton.
Just a few minutes after that Nathan Oickle and Devin Mauro set up Justin Mauro to extend the lead to two heading into the second intermission.
In the third period the Golden Hawks wasted no time as 30 seconds into the frame Trystan Mughal redeemed himself for his first period penalty when he connected with his twin brother Jordyn for a Golden Hawks goal to go up 4-1 on the Huskies.
It was an eventful third period between the whistles as well featuring multiple penalties for both sides including roughing, spearing, unsportsmanlike conduct and inciting an opponent.
Aiden McIntosh scored his second of the game and 12th of the season before the halfway mark of the period to extend the lead to four for the Golden Hawks.
After a sequence that saw both Mughal brothers and Bancroft get penalties for incidents in a post-whistle scrum, Haliburton County’s Nathan Porter capitalized to score a power play goal, bringing the score to 5-2 late in the game.
Porter’s goal would not prove to be enough for a momentum swing as Trenton’s Aaron Jameison scored his third of the season, all scored this weekend, to ice the game for a 6-2 Trenton win.
Trenton goalie Will Nguyen held strong in the crease all night, stopping 33 of 35 shots faced on the night to tally his seventh win of the season.
The offence was spread out for the Golden Hawks as both Mughal brothers, Bancroft, Oickle, McIntosh and LaVille all tallied two points on the night.
The win helped Trenton extend their lead in the East Division standings over the Huskies by six points as they move to 12-3-0-2 on the season and sit comfortable in first place, including a sparkling 8-0-0-2 record on the road.
Next up for the Golden Hawks is a trip to Lindsay to take on the third place Muskies on Tuesday at 2 p.m.
