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Trenton runs win streak to four games, closes gap on Villanova, Couchiching Things are tightening up in the middle of the Ontario Junior A Hockey League standings. The Trenton Golden Hawks hammered the lowly Milton Icehawks 8-2 yesterday at the Communty Garden to run their win streak to four games and close the gap on the Villanova Knights and Couchiching Terriers. While the top three teams —the Kingston Voyageurs, Oakville Blades and Georgetown Raiders — are set with two weeks left in the regular season, the next three spots are only separated by three points. The Hawks are in sixth place with a record of 31-17-3, just one point behind the Villanova Knights (31-16-4) and three points back of the Couchiching Terriers (33-17-2). Both the Hawks and the Knights have a game in hand on the Terriers, with Trenton having a game still to play against both clubs in their final five outings. Trenton 8, Milton 2 Yesterday, the Hawks scored early and often against the last-place Icehawks (3-46-2), as Curtis Renaud continued his red hot play, notching a hat trick plus two assists to pace the Trenton onslaught. The 20-year-old Carlisle, ON native now has six goals in his last three games and nine goals and five assists since coming to Trenton from the Bramalea Blues in early January. Renaud's linemate, Adam Baldassarre (7th) also had a big game against Milton, scoring twice and adding three assists. Logan Gabel (8th), Ryan Gieseler (8th), and Evan Stibbard (27th) also scored for the Hawks. Colin Cook also had his best game as a Hawk, picking up four assists, while other helpers came from Jeremie Gauthier, Stibbard, Jamie Haines, Taylor Pernerowski, Cory Melkert, Andrew Groom, and Jeff MacPherson. The game featured four fights, three in the third period, with the Hawks' Melkert, Haines, Joe Davies and Matt Frydrysek squaring off against Milton's Skylar Ell, Clinton MacKenzie, Marcus Jende, and Dennis Fontyn. Spencer Finney stopped 29 shots to improve his record to 21-7-2 as the Hawks outshot the Icehawks 45-31. Trenton 4, Couchiching 3 Friday at the Gardens, the Hawks recorded a dramatic 4-3 overtime win over Couchiching.

Trenton remains in sixth place after weekend split. If the Trenton Golden Hawks have any hopes of moving up the Ontario Junior A Hockey League standings they must beat the teams ahead of them. That being the case, the Hawks blew an opportunity Friday night at the Community Gardens when they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Georgetown Raiders. The Hawks rebounded yesterday to beat the woeful Milton Icehawks 7-4 and now cling to sixth place with a 28-17-3 mark, just one point ahead of the Aurora Tigers (26-16-6). "Friday night I wasn't pleased with our effort in the second period and much of the third," Hawks' coach Mat Goody said. "I thought we played pretty well in the first period, but several players switched to individual hockey in the second and it cost us. We also took some stupid penalties, including myself for arguing the roughing call on Jeff MacPherson at the end of the second period. That put us down 5-on-3 to start the third, and while we did a pretty good job of killing that off, our guys weren't able to get back in the play before they scored and that took some life out of us." The Hawks missed the offence of first line centre Jamie Haines, who is serving a four-game match penalty, as well as the strong defensive play of Cory Melkert, who returns to the lineup Thursday in Brampton after serving a two-game suspension. "There's no question we miss Haines' offence. He was basically scoring at a goal-per-game pace, so it hurts with him out of the lineup. And Melkert was a big loss because of his physical presence and the fact that he blocks a ton of shots," Goody said.

Finney, Beauchamp lead way in shootout win Chris Beauchamp picked a fine time to snap a 10-game goal-less drought. The 19-year-old Midland native scored a pair of unassisted third period goals and picked up an assist, and for good measure added the shootout winner to lead the Trenton Golden Hawks to a 6-5 victory over the Aurora Tigers yesterday in Aurora. That win, coupled with a 5-1 dusting of the Huntsville Otters Friday in Huntsville, improved the Hawks' Ontario Jr. A Hockey League record to 27-16-3, good enough for sixth place, one point back of the Villanova Knights. Aurora stands four-points back of Trenton in seventh at 24-16-5, with one game in hand. While Beauchamp led the Hawks offensively, it was goaltender Spencer Finney who stole the show. Despite giving up fivegoals in regulation time, Finney made 49 saves through overtime and then stopped two of three Aurora shots in the shootout to improve his record to 19-7-2. Jamie Haines (17th) opened the scoring for the Hawks 3:36 into the game on a solo effort. The Tigers pulled ahead when Sloan Stewart and Daniel Lisi scored 24 seconds apart with less than three mintes left in the opening period. However, just 15 seconds after Aurora took the lead, Louis Labbe and newcomer Matt Frydrysek combined to set up Logan Gabel (7th) to knot the score at 2-2. Trenton reclaimed the lead 3:17 into the second period when Brad Gehl (33rd) connected from Haines and Beauchamp. Lucas VanNatter and David Morley then scored a pair of powerplay goals three minutes apart to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead entering the third period.