A thrilling, pendulum-swinging game in Trenton on Friday night ended in the Milton Menace’s favour, 6-5 over the Golden Hawks.
The rematch of last season’s Buckland Cup Final between the West Conference champion Menace and the Hawks, the representatives of the East, lived up to its hype, with a couple of lead changes and neither team enjoying a multi-goal lead.
Isaiah Shantz and Taeo Artichuk (shorthanded) got on the board for Trenton in the first, but Milton worked around those tallies by getting three of its own from Josh Currie, Gavin Sheehan and Alec Stewart and outshooting Trenton 21-10 to take a 3-2 lead into the first intermission.
The Hawks got further energy to their legs in the second, with Joey Brehmer lifting a shot over Milton goalie Austin McKillop to knot the score at three apiece at 6:11 and then Artichuk ripping a shot home in the later stages for his second of the night to stamp the lead for Trenton.
The back-and-forth continued into the third, with Milton coming back twice to tie.
Brody Leet buried one with 7:39 to go, but Artichuk sent the Duncan McDonald Community Gardens crowd into a frenzy by zinging a laser past McKillop off a centering pass from Candon O’Neill with 6:27 left for his hat trick goal and another Trenton lead.
Marcus Tryfon wiped that edge away by converting on a seam pass to deadlock the score again and force overtime.
1:45 into the extra session, the outstanding motor of Easton Lynds, which directly created an earlier goal, resulted in one for himself, as he beat the Hawks on an individual effort and scored on Hayden Jeffrey to extend Milton’s season-opening unbeaten streak to 11 straight games.
Thomas Kuipers and Reed Pettipas added two assists each, with O’Neill, Jaxon Pierce, Jack Ziliotto, Kale Mace and Cole Mulder (first OJHL point) adding single helpers.
Milton outshot Trenton 47-36 overall, which meant Jeffrey was busy with 41 saves.
Trenton does pick up a point to go to 9-2-0-1 on the season, but loses at home for the first time this season.
The Hawks will have a short turnaround and visit the Newmarket Hurricanes for the first time in six years Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
(BROCK ORMOND)
