A entertaining contest between two top OJHL squads ended in the Trenton Golden Hawks securing a point in an overtime loss.
Adrian Bosev tapped home the winner on the powerplay late in the first OT period to send the Leamington Flyers to a 4-3 victory.
Leamington, celebrating its Pink in the Rink fundraising night, started early with a goal off the stick of Griffin Grundner 2:19 into the game, before Owen Outwater answered with a blast top shelf for his first goal in his Hawks debut after coming from the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires.
Taeo Artichuk’s assist on the goal was a record-breaking 103rd assist as a Golden Hawk, passing David Fournier for most in franchise history.
Artichuk then went to work on scoring himself, putting Trenton ahead by spanking home an Outwater centering pass for his league-leading 16th of the season at 1:39 of the second.
The see-saw battle continued with Grundner burying his second of the game on a powerplay late in the middle frame for Leamington.
The hosts then retook the lead three-and-a-half minutes into the third via Ethan Walker and held on until the final minute, when Artichuk walked in from a sharp angle and roofed his second of the game and 17th of the season on Tre Altiman with 50 seconds left to green light bonus action.
A Trenton penalty sent the Flyers to the winning goal from Bosev, who cleaned up the loose rebound off a Landon Bernard shot for the winner.
Artichuk and Outwater finished with three points each, Jack Ziliotto added two and Andrew Wycisk and Jamie Darlison with one each. Hayden Jeffery made 34 saves.
The Hawks are now in second in the East Conference with a 12-2-0-2 record thanks to a Stouffville Spirit win on Thursday night, but have a chance to jump back to top spot with a win over the Pickering Panthers on Friday night.
Game time at the Duncan McDonald Community Gardens is 7:30 p.m.
(BROCK ORMOND)
