It was a win on the scoreboard, but the Port Hope Predators had to head into Sunday night’s huge game against Kingston without Chad McQuaid and Danny Greiner.

In Trenton on Friday night, the Preds took on the Hercs, defeating them 4-2, but a brawl in the game’s dying minutes left the Preds shorthanded heading into Sunday night’s match as McQuaid and Greiner were each given two-game suspensions for their antics.

The game started tamely enough. The Preds ceased their parade to the penalty box, and were first on the board as Dave Harris opened the game up with a goal at 16:58 of the first period, with the assist going to Peter Baldwin.

Trenton countered only seconds later with one of their own at 17:06 in a quiet period that saw neither team take a penalty.

It was midway through the second, at 13:10, when Port Hope’s powerplay was able to get ahead on the man advantage. Blueliner Jared Barker had some help from leading scorer Tyler Miller and captain Jeremy McCarty.

Trenton, given a powerplay of their own shortly after, evened things up at 15:31, which would be the last of the scoring in the second frame.

Teams traded penalties at 20 minutes even for roughing after the whistle, which set the tone for the bloody third period.

Miller, who head coach Brendan O’Grady said was in a slump, seems to have found his game again, and got the go-ahead (and eventual game-winning) goal at 2:46 of the third period, from Greiner. Early in the third, Port Hope’s Nils Hanslinger was ejected for a hit from behind at 5:04, and things only got worse from there.

The penalties racked up and up for every infraction under the sun: Trenton for tripping, Port Hope for roughing, Trenton for high sticking, another hit from behind misconduct (this one to Trenton).

Trenton was handed another 10 minutes as Taylor Pernerowski failed to go to the bench. Port Hope was next with a roughing call.

And then, like he seems to be doing so often lately, Louis-Alex Nadeau put the game out of Trenton’s reach with an empty netter from captain McCarty at 19:25.

“And then,” O’Grady said, “all hell broke loose.

“It was a pretty tame game until we scored that empty netter. There was a nasty hit on Dave Williams and then Jared Barker went in, it turned into a five-on-five, and their coach was upset because he thought I had my tough guys out there; meanwhile, Steve Harding was sitting on the bench.”

McQuaid’s and Greiner's offences involved a second fight in the same stop in play, which is what merited the aforementioned suspensions. Going into a tough game like last night’s against Kingston, especially in their own rink, the Preds are not happy to be heading in without the services of these two players.

“It’s going to be tough,” O’Grady said prior to Sunday’s match.

“The boys played well on Friday, though. They kept it simple, the D were strong, Spencer Finney was good in net for us. When we went up 3-2, we kept the lead and Spencer made a big save with 20 seconds to go while their extra attacker was on, we got the rebound and scored the empty netter.”

The Preds worked hard last week in practice after some of the team’s weaknesses were exposed over the College Showcase weekend where the team played three games in as many days.

“We had a little bit of a meeting last week, and talked about expectations, and one of the expectations was doing the little things, and we did,” O’Grady said.

“We worked a lot harder in practice last week, and we need to be ready. A lot of guys are feeling more at home now, but we’ve still only been together for a month. There are still some kinks to iron out, but the bottom line is we don’t want to play our best hockey in December, we want to play it in February when the games count more.”

In other Predators news, the Predators have released forward, Tim Hurst, who has gone back to his previous team in the United States.

“Tim came in very strong, and things started to derail at the Huntsville tournament and never really got back on track,” director of hockey operations Tim Clayden said.

The Predators have also been involved in a large deal, sending starting goaltender Billy Stone, along with defencemen Curtis Megginson and Sam Skura and forward Kyle Soder to Blind River of the Northern Ontario Junior A Hockey League.

Stone has ties to the coach/GM in Blind River, who was his first junior coach.

In return, the Predators get two players: Travis Savard (F, 1989) and Matt Webkamigad (D, 1990).

Clayden said he hopes Savard will arrive in time for next Friday’s match against the Peterborough Stars.

“He’ll fit in with our top nine forwards; we think he can help us,” Clayden said.

Webkamigad will be moved to another team, but Clayden said he is uncertain as to which one.

“We’re talking to a couple of teams,” he said.

Also, in return for the players, Port Hope will get an undisclosed amount of cash, and “future considerations.”

In turn, because Stone’s rights for the NOJHL are owned by Manitoulin, where he previously played, Blind River must compensate Manitoulin for acquiring Stone.

The Preds played Kingston Sunday night at home, losing 6-4, and are back in action Friday evening in Peterborough.