The ride is over for the Trenton Golden Hawks.
The Newmarket Hurricanes ensured there would be a new Buckland Cup OJHL champion in 2026 after a 3-2 win in Game 6 on Tuesday night.
Without the author of the Game 5 winner Lucas Digiantommaso due to a one-game suspension, the Hawks tried to dig deeper into their depth to try and tame the Hurricanes.
The two teams emerged tied after one period, with Simon Wang beating Colton Drillen-Roach at 10:36 and Taeo Artichuk putting away his second of the playoffs with two seconds remaining in the first from Jamie Darlison.
Newmarket clawed back ahead again in the second with Chase Yanni scoring at about the halfway point of the stanza again.
Once again though, Trenton kept at it and equalized for a second time with Thomas Kuipers burying his fourth of the postseason, assisted by linemates Joey Brehmer and Isaiah Shantz, with all of them continuing their strong postseason.
Unfortunately for Trenton, the ‘Canes found a way to break the tie in a tense third period.
Newmarket captain Joel Taylor achieved his first goal of the postseason at the best possible time, sinking home the game-winner with 6:08 to play in regulation time and then helping to lock down the Canes series victory and their first trip to the OJHL’s final four since 2023.
Drillen-Roach was solid in the losing cause, stopping 26 of 29.
Despite the disappointing ending, the Hawks displayed a lot of resilience to get the series to a sixth game after trailing 3-0.
The Golden Hawks thank their fans, staff and volunteers for another outstanding season and will look forward to welcoming everyone back in August for training camp.
Quinte West hockey fans will still have one more team left to cheer for this postseason, with the Frankford Huskies set to tangle with the Uxbridge Bruins in the PJHL East Conference Final.
Photo: OJHL Images
