Golden Hawks head home with 2-0 lead in best-of-seven final
Rookie Jaxon Pierce’s first goal of the 2025 Ontario Junior Hockey playoffs couldn’t have come at a better time for his Trenton Golden Hawks.
Pierce scored the only goal of the third period to lift Trenton to a 3-2 win over the hometown Milton Menace tonight. The victory gives Trenton a two-games-to-nothing lead in the best-of-seven OJHL Championship Series.
Game 3 goes Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Trenton.
Trenton, which trailed 1-0 and 2-1, has been dominating the scoring in third periods through three rounds-plus of playoffs this spring.
Cooper Matthews and Kyloe Ellis had the other Trenton goals. Justin Dezoete and Luke Johnston scored for Milton.
Trenton Head Coach Derek Smith has instilled confidence in his troops that they can win late, Pierce said in a postgame interview.
Smith recruited Pierce, a native of Fredericton, NB, from Stanstead College, a Quebec prep school last summer.
Pierce called Trenton goaltender Ryan Sanborn “the backbone of our team.” Sanborn is 14-2-1 with a league-leading 1.81 goals-against average in this year’s playoffs. His Golden Hawks were outshot 33-30 Monday.
Attendance was 1,202.
The OJHL champions will advance to the Centennial Cup national championship tournament, May 8-18, in Calgary, Alberta.
