This afternoon's game was a loud one with Minor Hockey kids here from all over York Region, including Georgina, Uxbridge and Newmarket. It was the 50th Anniversary for the East Gwillimbury Eagles, who had the Newmarket Hurricanes present them with a golden plaque that will be displayed in their arena.

The Hurricanes were playing their second last regular season game against the Wellington Dukes on January 31st. They are currently sitting in second overall in the CCHL with 66 points. Wellington wasn't far behind as they sat in second place in the Eastern Division with 63 points.

The game started out with the Dukes and the Hurricanes getting a feel for each other. Newmarket had their physical game on throwing their weight around, delivering strong open ice hits. Jimmy Sarjeant showed off his glove hand making some quick saves early on in the game to keep it scoreless. The Canes had a power play opportunity with a little over a minute remaining but couldn't develop any scoring chances. The game would enter the second period, with Newmarket on the power play for 44 seconds.

The Canes got into some penalty trouble four minutes into the second, but played strong defensive hockey with Braeden Rigney and Morgan Bonner getting in the way to block shots. The scoring opened up with the Dukes tapping in a loose puck from the crease to grab the one goal lead over the Canes. Newmarket went on the power play late in the second creating several scoring chances but couldn't bury it. The Hurricanes would enter the final 20 minutes down by one.

Captain Chad Sumsion, Jarrod Connolly, and Braeden Rigney turned on the offensive pressure, getting some quality scoring chances together, giving the Canes the momentum. Right after that, Bowman Webster and Joel Hanley put on a beautiful display with Webster feeding Hanley for a one timer goal to tie the game at one. Newmarket was on fire with Webster and Dalton Jay each taking turns on a breakaway but couldn't get it past the Dukes goaltender. 60 minutes wasn't enough, so the game had to be decided in sudden death overtime.

Sarjeant made some crucial saves in OT keeping his team in it. Mitch Taylor got into some penalty trouble, resulting with a 4 on 3 for two minutes. Jimmy Sarjeant did everything he could during the penalty kill but the Dukes scored from the point to win the game 2 - 1 in overtime.

The final shots on net were 37 - 32 in favour of Wellington. Newmarket plays their final home game of the season against the Burlington Cougars, Thurs. Feb. 4 at 7:35pm.