A strong second period and five unanswered goals allowed the Trenton Golden Hawks to capture a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Jr. Sabres on Wednesday night. The Jr. Sabres struggled to capitalize on various valuable power-play opportunities, and in the end, it cost them against the top team in the OJHL.
The game was preceded by a pregame ceremony with both the United States and Canadian national anthems, as well as the colors presented by the Niagara Falls Air Force Base Color Guard, in honor of Veterans Day and Remembrance Day.
Things started off well for the Buffalo Jr. Sabres, as Griffin Lunn opened the scoring with his eighth of the season on a snipe that flew past Golden Hawks netminder Daniel Urbani.
Less than three minutes later, the Jr. Sabres took a quick 2-0 lead as Tim Nicksic notched one on the power-play for his ninth of the year. That was when the offense halted for Buffalo.
Under a minute after Nicksic’s goal, Trenton got into the game on a goal by Adam Clements. The teams skated off the ice with Buffalo holding onto a 2-1 lead, but that didn’t last long into the second period. Just 33 seconds in, Kevin Lavoie tied things up and just like that, the game tilted in Trenton’s favor.
The second period was a strong effort from the Golden Hawks, who dominated and added two more goals, both at the hands of Mitch Emerson, to take a 4-2 lead into the third.
Emerson completed the hat trick to help lead his team to the win.
Brian Kowalski had 16 saves on 21 shots before being swapped out for Tucker Weppner, who came in to register 10 saves on as many shots. Urbani finished the game with 19 saves for the Golden Hawks.
The Buffalo Jr. Sabres next travel to Toronto to face the Jr. Canadiens on November 15. They’ll then visit Burlington and Stouffville before returning home on November 23 to host Orangeville. That game was originally scheduled for November 18.
