September 26, 2026
The Trenton Golden Hawks struck first in the annual Battle of Quinte series on Friday night, defeating an injury-plagued Wellington Dukes squad 6-2 at the Duncan McDonald Memorial Community Gardens.
A hungry Trenton group took full advantage of their home ice at “The Hangar,” setting the tone just 41 seconds into the opening frame. Former Cobourg Cougar Kaiden Harmon flew down the right wing and delivered a perfect feed to Ryan Chamberlain, who tapped it past Wellington goaltender Dryden Riley to send the home crowd into an early frenzy. The Golden Hawks maintained their aggressive physical pressure throughout the period, highlighted by a heavy check from Ryan Foley on Blake Berthiaume. Trenton extended their lead to 2-0 late in the first when newly acquired defenceman Niko Krmpotic buried a power-play marker, assisted by Liam Fisher and Ewart.
Wellington refused to go down quietly despite navigating multiple roster absences. Leading scorer Landon Marleau got the Dukes on the board 8:12 into the second period, cutting the deficit to one after capitalizing on assistance from Zachary Mascard and Gavin Godick. However, Trenton re-established their two-goal cushion before the second intermission when Ewart connected on a play set up by Harmon and Mace.
The Dukes mounted another push early in the final stanza, with Kasen Beitz scoring his first goal as a Duke just 1:27 into the frame to bring the score to 3-2. That would be as close as the visitors would get, as Trenton’s special teams and depth broke the game wide open in the final ten minutes. Krmpotic struck again on the power play for his second of the night, followed by late tallies from Charlie Gage and an empty-netter to secure the decisive 6-2 victory for the Golden Hawks.
With the victory, Trenton pulled back to a balanced .500 record on the season while handing Wellington their second regulation loss. The regional rivals will look forward to three more highly anticipated regular-season matchups in the Battle of Quinte series.