February 9, 2024
By Brock Ormond
Photo: Wellington Dukes/OJHL Images
A large crowd at Lehigh Arena got treated to an outstanding hockey game on Friday night between the two Quinte OJHL rivals.
David Fournier bookended the scoring with the first and last goals, including the clincher in double overtime as the Trenton Golden Hawks upended the Wellington Dukes 4-3 to snuff out a comeback effort and sweep the 2023-24 season series in front of nearly 1,100 spectators.
Fournier scored shortly after a powerplay expired 4:18 into the night from Matthew Lee and Taeo Artichuk, but Cory Jewitt answered at 8:07 on a powerplay, grinding a rebound home from Connor Hunt and Pana Efraimidis.
Owen Wilson was left alone to bury a shot at the top of the left circle to put Trenton back ahead by one from the OJHL’s leading point getter Adam O’Marra (85th point of the year) and Cooper Matthews.
The Golden Hawks extended the lead to 3-1 on a Thomas Kuipers laser at 3:45 into the second frame from Ryan Nichols and Gianni DiVita.
Down by two, the Dukes compiled several chances which weren’t converted on, including the first of two partial breakaways from Ethan Quick off a steal at centre ice.
Wellington did however carry momentum from those missed chances into the third, scoring two off the stick of Efraimidis and on a skate deflection from Hunt on a Colin Smith point shot.
Hunt and Jewitt both ended up with three points on the night, to help the Dukes gain their first point against Trenton this season.
After Wellington missed a powerplay in overtime, Lucas LaPalm set up Fournier on the backdoor for the winner in the second extra session to help Trenton bank the extra point and send the sizable contingent of G-Hawks fans home happy.
Both Jack Lisson (36 saves) and Brady Spry (34) were brilliant between the posts to keep the game close.
With their seventh win in a row, the G-Hawks now improves to 38-7-1-1 with 78 points on the season, while Wellington falls to 30-16-0-3 on the year with only its second loss in nine games, sitting two points up on the Markham Royals.
The Dukes will wait to play the Aurora Tigers on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. to start four games in five days.