Golden Hawks News

Hawks fall to Raiders, dump Icehawks

Date: Feb 04, 2010

 

Trenton remains in sixth place after weekend split

Posted By Tim Meeks - Trentonian

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.

Goody realizes the Hawks can't look past the Capitals (22-23-5) on Thursday night, but if they want to avoid meeting either Georgetown (34-9-4) or the Oakville Blades (39-7-1) in the first round, they need to beat the Couchiching Terriers (31-16-1) Friday at the Gardens.

"Brampton is our most important game of the week. If we win that then we can worry about trying to beat Couchiching. A lot of other things can happen with other teams, but we can only worry about the games we're playing and how we're playing them," Goody said.

Georgetown 4, Trenton 2

Friday, Georgetown opened the scoring 12:04 into the first period when a the Raiders turned an ill-advised pinch by Taylor Pernerowski into a two-on-one break which Steve Perfetto finished off.

However, the Hawks tied it on the power play just over two minutes later when Curtis Renaud (16th) pounced on a rebound off a Ryan Gieseler point shot. Pernerowski also assisted on the play.

The Raiders reclaimed the lead 5:47 into the second period when Justin Basso converted a perfect cross-crease pass from Aaron Pearce.

The Hawks almost tied it late in the frame when Brad Gehl hit the goal post.

At the end of the period the Hawks put themselves in a bad spot when MacPherson took a silly roughing penalty, and Goody was overzealous in his protest of the call, prompting referee Steve O'Reilly to slap him with a bench minor, leaving the Hawks two men short to start the final stanza.

Although the Hawks managed to kill the penalty, thanks to a couple of nice saves by Brady Wilyman, Jeremy Wick chipped the puck in three seconds after the penalties had expired, giving the Raiders a 3-1 lead.

The Raiders gave the Hawks a couple of power plays early in the frame, but Trenton could manage only one shot on net, while allowing Kyle Essery to score shorthanded at 9:57 to make it 4-1.

Hawks closed the gap to 4-2 with 1:41 remaining when Joe Davies (10th) banged in a rebound off a Gieseler point shot, but that was as close as they would get. Evan Stibbard also assisted on the play.

The Hawks outshot the Raiders 27-25, with Wilyman's record falling to 4-2-1.

Trenton 7, Milton 4

Yesterday, the Hawks got off to a rough start against a last-place Icehawks (2-44-2) that dressed just 13 skaters.

Trevor Hunt opened the scoring just 1:26 into the game, and while two minutes later, Hawks tied it when Brad Gehl (34th) scored from Matt Frydrysek and Evan Stibbard, the Icehawks reclaimed the lead a mere 11 seconds later on a goal by Vito Carnovale.

The Hawks tied it again at 13:53 when Gieseler and Cole Sheehan combined to set up a power play goal by Renaud (17th).

Adam Baldassarre put Trenton in front with an unassisted shorthanded goal with 3:01 left in the frame.

The Hawks came out strong on the second period, and just 1:41 in Logan Gabel (7th) connected from Baldassarre and Jeremie Gauthier. Three minutes after that Stibbard (24th) scored an unassisted shorthanded tally to make it 5-2.

Carnovale cut into the lead with his second of the game at 7:01, but Renaud (18th) scored the Hawks' third shorthanded goal of the game with 2:03 left in the period to make it 6-3. Ganel and Pernerowski assisted on the play.

Gehl (35th) connected again from Frydrysek and Stibbard 3:26 into the third to make it 7-3.

Adam Piett rounded out the scoring for Milton on the power play just over three minutes later.

Spencer Finney made 27 saves to improve his record to 20-7-2, as the Hawks outshot the Icehawks 47-31.

NOTES: Hawks scratches Friday were Haines, Melkert, Colin Cook and Sheehan, while Sunday, Haines, Melkert, Andrew Groom and MacPherson sat out...Melkert returns to the lineup Thursday in Brampton, while Haines returns Sunday when the Hawks host Milton at 2 p.m. at the Gardens...Friday's game against Couchiching starts at 7:30 p.m.

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