- Watch party organizers
A grinding battle ended in a heart-breaking loss for the Trenton Golden Hawks on Friday in Calgary.
Trenton fell to 1-1 in the Centennial Cup after a 2-1 overtime defeat against the SIJHL Champion Kam River Fighting Walleye.
Daxton Lang provided the heroics to prevent the Hawks from winning their third consecutive overtime game dating back to Game 6 of the Buckland Cup Final.
The goaltending battle between Brady Spry, making his first start for Trenton since the regular season finale on February 28 and Kam River’s Ashton Sadauskas was the central story of the day.
Spry made 17 stops while Sadauskas kicked out 25 of 26 Trenton opportunities, including several point-blank chances.
Carter Nailen got the Fighting Walleye on the board in the first to get the ‘fish’ swimming upstream.
The Hawks were left frustrated by a few posts on powerplay opportunities in the second but finally managed to break through on Cooper Matthews’ first of the tournament on a powerplay at 15:34.
Taeo Artichuk and David Fournier were credited with the setup
Neither team broke in the third frame and each earned one more point.
The overtime period was free-flowing and back and-forth, with Lang putting the Hawks away with 31 seconds remaining after being sprung for a breakaway by Edwin Liang.
Despite that loss, Hawks Business Operations Manager Tracey Legault-Davis said the team is feeling positive and energized so far.
“They are just gelling like nobody’s business, whether it’s at the arena, going out for dinner very focused, which is amazing,” Legault-Davis said.
“We’ve got a bunch of family that’s made the trek out here. It is absolutely amazing. It’s a gorgeous rink.”
She was excited to hear of all the unwavering support from back home.
So far, the two viewing parties that have put together in partnership between the city and team volunteers at the Duncan McDonald Community Gardens have reached capacity.
“They had to actually move tables today to make more room,” Legault-Davis explained.
“It’s amazing to know that all of everybody’s behind us.”
She added the local business community, including premier sponsor Lange and Fetter Ford, has stepped up in a big way, with that company sponsoring a car to ship equipment partway across the country.
Legault-Davis encourages fans and community members to check out the team’s social media pages and leave messages of encouragement for the players and staff.
“The boys are actually checking the socials for messages, and they’re loving hearing from the community,” she said. “I’m sharing messages with them on a regular basis.”
The Hawks will have the weekend off before a date with the Greater Sudbury Cubs at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday.
