The Trenton Golden Hawks have wrestled away the upper hand in the 2025-26 Battle of Quinte season series.
Casey Bridgewater’s first goal as a Golden Hawk late in the second period was the difference as the Hawks shaded the Wellington Dukes 3-2 on Friday night at Lehigh Arena.
A tightly played and sometimes testy contest opened with a Dukes powerplay goal on a scramble courtesy of Evan Erwin, his 12th of the season assisted by Landon Marleau and Will Mitchell.
Later in the first frame, Lucas Digiantommaso took advantage of an odd man rush to beat Dryden Riley for his 10th as a Hawk from Jamie Darlison and Joey Brehmer to knot the score.
Wellington persisted to grab the lead back 5:40 into the second with Marleau swinging a shot through Hayden Jeffery’s pads for his 21st of the year from Erwin and Tristan Williams.
Jeffery slammed the door shut the rest of the way and got some major help from a Daylen Moses penalty shot goal and then Bridgewater’s winner to go ahead to stay.
Moses, hooked on a breakaway, beat Riley through the five-hole on the ensuing one-on-one situation.
Shy of a minute-and-a-half later, Bridgewater had a pass come to him through some skates and right on his tape for a top shelf shot and the eventual game-winner, assisted by Taeo Artichuk and Jack Ziliotto.
Jeffery then took over, making no less than three massive saves in the third period, including one on Liam Campbell on a partial break as part of his 24 on the night to preserve the Hawks 37th victory of the season and eighth in a row.
In the process, Trenton snapped Wellington’s six-game home winning streak.
Riley made 26 saves for the Dukes, who fall to 23-15-3-5 and stay six points off of fifth place in the East.
Both teams are off until Tuesday, with Wellington home to the Caledon Admirals at 1:30 p.m. and Trenton hosting Markham at 7:30 p.m.
