Golden Hawks News

Hawks rout Icehawks, clip Terriers

Date: Feb 08, 2010

Trenton runs win streak to four games, closes gap on Villanova, Couchiching

Posted By Tim Meeks - Trentonian

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.

Renaud's second goal of the game at 2:56 of overtime was the winner as the Hawks erased a third period comeback by the Terriers that saw Belleville native Zach Hall tie the game with a powerplay goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation. His brother Sam, a former Wellington Duke, assisted on the play.

Cole Sheehan (4th) and Louis Labbe (7th) scored the other Trenton goals, while Pernerowski picked up three assists in a solid effort. Other helpers came from Baldassarre, Tyler Nelson, Gauther, Chris Beauchamp, and Stibbard.

The Hawks played a strong first period and staked themselves to a 1-0 lead on Renaud's fifth.

The Terriers didn't do themselves any favours in the second period as their chippy play earned them five straight penalties, including a five-minute major to Andrew Parks for slamming Rod Bouchard into the side boards from behind. Bouchard had to be helped off the ice with a left leg injury, but returned in the third period.

But the Hawks couldn't take advantage, as their struggling powerplay came up empty until Sheehan scored 1:32 into the third to give the Hawks a 3-1 lead. On the same man advantage less than a minute later, Hawks turned the puck over allowing Josh Cousineau to score shorthanded to close the gap to 3-2.

Both Hawks' Brady Wilyman (6-2-1) and Terriers' Dalton McGrath turned in strong efforts as Trenton outshot Couchiching 33-23.

"I thought we played a pretty sound game," Hawks' coach Mat Goody said. "We had a few breakdowns here and there, but that's going to happen. There was a playoff atmosphere in that game and it's a potential playoff matchup. There's no love lost between the two teams and it's only going to get tougher if we meet in the playoffs.

"I think we're starting to come around here in terms of discipline. We did take some silly penalties, but in the past few games not as many as we had in the previous six games."

Goody has been impressed with the play of recent acqusitions like Renaud, Frydrysek, Baldassarre, Gieseler, and Melkert.

"Those guys have all been great additions and that's a feather in the general manager's (Tim Clayden) hot. Some of these guys were playing for weaker teams and the little things weren't there, but now they're on a team that's competitive every night so they have to be more mentally focused on the little things. We've acquired some mental toughness and that's what you need at this time of year."

Trenton 5, Brampton 1

Thursday's in Brampton, the Hawks opened the scoring 3:44 into the game when Frydrysek (3rd) scored on the power play from Pernerowski and MacPherson.

Stibbard made it 2-0 3:11 into the middle frame when he was set up by Baldassarre. Just over five minutes later Stibbard scored on the power play from Frydrysek and Brad Gehl.

Hawks made it 4-0 less than two minutes later when Davies set up Renaud. Baldassarre notched the Hawks' third power play goal of the game with 3:54 left in the second. Labbe and Cook assisted on the play.

The Capitals 22-24-5) snapped Wilyman's shutout bid 8:42 into the final stanza when Josh Ocampo scored.

NOTES: Couchiching was without league scoring leader Matt Smyth (50 goals, 101 points), who is out with an ankle injury...Hawks leading scorer Brad Gehl (35 goals, 78 points) sat out yesterday's game to rest a sore shoulder, while Bouchard (leg), Nelson and Nick Foglia also sat out...The Hawks take to the road for a pair of games this week, Wednesday in Georgetown against the third place Raiders (37-9-4), and Friday in Bramalea against the 13th place Blues (15-31-4). The Terriers return to the Gardens Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

Back to news articles