Golden Hawks stay alive with season-saving win

Amy Deroche / OJHL Images

Thomas Kuipers wasn’t ready for it to end, and neither were the Trenton Golden Hawks.

The Humanitarian of the Year made sure of it Friday night at the Duncan McDonald Memorial Community Gardens, leading his club to a season-saving 6–3 win.

Determined not to see his team swept, the captain had a pair of assists to keep their playoff hopes alive.

“It felt great to get back in front of our fans,” Kuipers said. “We were due. We had a couple of tough games there, but we played well tonight.”

Kuipers also knows just how much the Golden Hawks mean to Trenton.

“Our fans are incredible, and we fed off that energy,” he said. I'll always remember this building. I grew up watching the Golden Hawks, and now that I’m here. I don’t take it for granted.”

While the Golden Hawks are down 3–1 in the best-of-seven semifinal series, Kuipers believes it has been much closer.

“We know we can play with this team,” he said. “We’re the number-one seed for a reason. We just have to stick to our game.”

Trenton couldn’t have asked for a better start, with Joey Brehmer opening the scoring just 24 seconds into the first period.

Like the rest of the series, Newmarket responded as Chase Yanni and Kristian Lamanna gave the Hurricanes a 2–1 lead heading into the first intermission.

“You’re not going to get the bounces every game,” Kuipers said. “We got out to a hot start, they scored a couple, and then we took it from there. It was our game from that point on.”

In the middle frame, Joshua Penny tied the game with a one-timer on the power play before all-star defenceman Andrew Wycisk scored his first of the postseason, giving Trenton a 3–2 lead after 40 minutes.

Early in the third, Lucas Digiantommaso and Wyatt Gregory each scored, chasing Newmarket starter Carter Froggett in favour of Alex Armellin.

Lucas Teixeira cut into the lead on the power play, but Digiantommaso added his team-leading sixth of the postseason with an empty-netter.

Trenton ended up outshooting Newmarket 43–27 and went 3-for-8 on the power play, while Colten Drillen-Roach made 24 saves.

“He was awesome tonight,” Kuipers said. “He was our backbone. He gave our team a lot of confidence.”

After struggling to find the back of the net in Newmarket, Trenton now leads the Eastern Conference in playoff scoring.

“Their goalie has been really good, but tonight we broke through,” Kuipers said. “Hopefully, we can keep building off that.”

If the Golden Hawks are able to continue extending the series, Trenton will host two of the final three games, starting Sunday afternoon.

“We’re not out of it. We know the team we are,” Kuipers said. “We believe we can beat anyone in a series like this. We’re just taking it one game at a time.”