THRILLING OJHL PLAYOFFS For Local Junior A Hockey Fans

from Total Sports Quinte Spring 2023

Total Sports Quinte Spring 2023

By Jeff Gard - Total Sports Quinte

The playoffs provided excitement for local junior A fans.

A year ago, both the Trenton Golden Hawks and Wellington Dukes were dispatched in the first round during non-traditional best-of-three divisional matchups.

This time around, the regular best-of-seven series returned in addition to 1-to-8 conference seeding.

Fans were eventually treated to a battle of Quinte area teams in the South-East Conference final with Golden Hawks eliminating the Dukes in five games. Trenton advanced to the OJHL’s Buckland Cup championship series, but were overmatched by the Collingwood Blues which will now represent the league at the Centennial Cup national tournament May 11-21 in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

Collingwood clinched the league title with a 2-1 overtime victory April 28 to win the series in five games.

Lucas Robinson gave the visiting Golden Hawks a first-period lead but Mark McIntosh answered back with two goals for the Blues. McIntosh capitalized on a power play 11:31 into the third after the Golden Hawks were called for too many men on the ice and then scored the winner just under three minutes into the extra frame.

Three of the five games in the series went into overtime with the Blues winning two of them.

Collingwood jumped out to a 2-0 series lead with victories of 2-0 and 5-1. The Golden Hawks cut the deficit to one with a 2-1 Game 3 overtime victory thanks to Jordan Fuller’s fourth game-winning goal of the playoffs. The Blues responded with two straight wins including 3-2 in overtime in Game 4. Fuller was also the OT hero in Trenton’s Game 5 series-clinching game against Wellington on April 14.

While that series ended in five games, the games were close with the Dukes 4-1 win in Game 2 being the largest margin of victory. Trenton won the series opener 3-1 and following Wellington’s victory prevailed 4-2 in Game 3, 3-2 in Game 4 and 2-1 in Game 5.

Wellington had only lost once heading into the conference final after dispatching the St. Michael’s Buzzers in five games before the Haliburton County Huskies four straight.

Fans come in all walks of life!