With Freddie Mercury and Queen singing 'We Are The Champions' the Trenton Golden Hawks celebrated a 2-1 win over the Georgetown Raiders to claim their second straight Dudley-Hewitt Cup.

 

Fans arriving without tickets at the Duncan McDonald arena in Trenton were greeted with a sign on the door- 'secondary standing room only'. It was the ninth post-season meeting for the two teams with the Raiders ahead five to three beating the 'Hawks in overtime in the tournament round-robin after taking the Buckland Cup in seven. You knew this was going to be a close one and that's exactly how it turned out.

 

The hosts made changes from their 10-4 win over Dryden with Liam Morgan sitting out injured, Dawson Baker Austin Tonkovich, and Rex Moe came in. For the Raiders Colin Rigney and Scott Docherty were in the lineup in place of Jack Hughes and Louis Kereakou. Nicholas Latinovich was back in the net for Georgetown with Chris Janzen guarding the twine for Trenton.

 

The Golden Hawks tallied the only goal of an even first period. With just under a minute remaining Anthony Sorrentino getting his fifth goal and tenth point of the tourney as he sent home a low shot from between the faceoff circles, converting a cross-ice pass from Brandon Marinelli with Baker also picking up an assist.

 

These two clubs know each other so well that good scoring chances in the second were few and far between but the action, as with all the Dudley games was non-stop. The Raiders evened things up at 16.25 as he cut in front of the net from the right side just after they had come up short on a powerplay. The goal was unassisted. 1-1 after one.

 

At 3.31 of the third James Thomson saw Michael Silveri in front and the big winger who had not been having the best puck luck around the net made no mistake on a spinaround shot right in front. Needing to get back into the game the Raiders had most of the play but Janzen was always up to the task. At 1.57 an exciting finish loomed and that's exactly what the fans got with a desperate Georgetown club throwing everything they had at the Golden Hawks. A tripping penalty to Sorrentino at 1.49 gave them the two-man advantage but in a game of inches that is hockey and some superb goalkeeping with no rebounds by Janzen ensured that the Golden Hawks would hoist the Cup.  

 

Good luck to the Raiders players who finished their Junior hockey careers on this special night- Arran MacDonald, Rigney, Keegan Blasby, Docherty, Jordan Anderson and goalie Josh Astorino and Kereakou.

 

Now the Golden Hawks are ready to move on to the Royal Bank Cup in Cobourg with three other teams still to be decided.