A hungry Trenton Golden Hawks group proved to be an intimidating force against the shorthanded Wellington Dukes.
New defenceman Niko Krmpotic fired home his second and third powerplay goals in two games as a Hawk as Trenton broke away with three unanswered third goals in a 6-2 victory on Friday night at ‘The Hangar in Round 1 of the 2026-27 edition of the Battle of Quinte.
A fast start for the Hawks was sparked by Kaiden Harmon and Ryan Chamberlain, who linked up for the opening goal 41 seconds into the night.
Harmon, a former Cobourg Cougar, came in on the right wing and fed Chamberlain for a tap in through Dryden Riley to get the Hawks faithful loud early.
Trenton imposed its will physically in the opening frame, with one big highlight being a heavy Ryan Foley check on Blake Berthiaume near the benches.
Krmpotic buried a one-timer short-side on Riley after being set up by Beckett Ewart and Liam Fisher to increase the Trenton lead to 2-0 before the first period buzzer.
The red-hot Landon Marleau continued his strong start to the year by scoring his eighth of the season on a sharp wrist shot that eluded Hayden Jeffery off a drop pass from Zach Mascard.
Back in the lineup after missing the last few, Gavin Godick added the second assist as both Marleau and Mascard extended their season-opening point streaks to eight.
The Hawks restored the two-goal advantage on another late-period tally and another Harmon cross-seam feed, this time to Ewart for his third of the year, with Nathan McHattie picking up the second assist.
Wellington got the start it was looking for in the third as Kasen Beitz, picked up in an offseason trade with the Georgetown Raiders, potted his first of the season on a long shot from the top of the Trenton zone courtesy of help from Riley Misa and Oliver Coyle.
It appeared that Quinte Red Devils graduate Owen Rivers came through with a timely goal for his first junior marker almost midway through, but the officials washed it out after a lengthy review, leaving the door open just a crack for Wellington.
That door was shut a little tighter moments later when Kale Mace jammed home a loose puck in front of Riley for his third of the year from McHattie and Ewart and the Hawks cruised from there.
Krmpotic beat Riley for his second of the night, before Mason Musclow chased the Dukes starter three minutes later for backup AP Nathan Ferriss to close out the scoring.
Jeffery made 24 saves for Trenton while Riley (27 saves) and Ferriss (1 stop) split the net for Wellington, missing forwards Jayden Levesque, Jordan Mayo, Cooper Woron and Mike Albert and blueliners Brandon Mann and Jacob Vellucci.
The Hawks improve to 2-3-0-0 on the season, while the Dukes drop to 5-2-0-1 on the campaign.
Trenton heads to Stouffville Saturday night for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop during its three-game weekend, while the Dukes are idle again until next Friday with a return home to the Duke Dome for a matchup with the St. Michael’s Buzzers to begin October at 7:30 p.m.
