A late bit of magic helped the Trenton Golden Hawks squeeze out a victory in Lindsay on Friday night.
Jack Ziliotto broke a 1-1 tie with 20 seconds remaining in regulation as part of a 3-1 Hawks win.
The Hawks were swimming upstream most of the night against a stingy Muskies group, but got some equally good goaltending out of Hayden Jeffery through almost two goalless periods.
Lindsay finally managed to break through on the powerplay with three-and-a-half minutes left in the second on an Ajay Rai tally before Trenton fought back.
Jamie Darlison finally got Trenton on the board just over a minute into the third when he charged after a shoot-in that came straight out of the right-wing corner in front for him to spank in past Lindsay goalie George Cote.
The game ebbed and flowed until Ziliotto’s big strike in the waning seconds, sweeping a puck past Cote to give the Hawks the late lead, followed nine seconds later by the dagger from Thomas Kuipers into an empty cage.
Jaxon Broda assisted on all three Hawks tallies, with one each coming from Joey Brehmer, Owen Outwater and Taeo Artichuk.
Jeffery made 24 saves as Trenton outshot Lindsay 28-25 to improve to 17-3-0-2 and taking over the East Conference lead from the idle Stouffville Spirit.
The Golden Hawks continue their weekend road swing with a stop in Pickering at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
