Fans at the Cochrane Arena went wild Sunday (Feb. 27) afternoon watching the hometown Generals claim what was a nail-biter of a semifinal series against the Rocky Rams.
The Gens were down one going into Game 6 in Rocky Mountain House on Friday, but tied up the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) series 3-3 with a score of 7-1 to force a Game 7. In the final, the team showed the Rams whose house they were in by capping the series with a 6-1 victory.
"Our group came to play hard and worked hard for this win," said head coach Kurtis Jones. "[Rocky] is a good team and they play hard too, but we matched their performance and then some."
A goal by Gens centre Riley Hopper in the first four minutes of the game sent the team's success snowballing from there.
It was soon followed by a power play goal from captain Patrick Forde at the first period's halfway mark. Defenceman Jordan Marks and Rams captain Nick Jervis were the only ones to score in the second, but the Gens took a dominant lead in the third with another three goals courtesy of Hopper, defenceman Ryan Davis and forward Zachary Stewart.
The Rams upset the Sylvan Lake Wranglers in quarterfinals and came within one game of progressing to play the Red Deer Vipers, who recently beat out the Airdrie Thunder, for the north.
Although it marks the end of the Rams playoff run, head coach Wendall Mason said making it as far as they did is still a success story for the two-year-old organization.
"Obviously we wanted to go a little further and we felt our team was good enough to be in the second and third round of playoffs," he said. "But the last two, three months was huge for us in the run we put together.
"Cochrane has a very good team, but at the end of the day I always preach to our guys that hard work beats out talent, for the most part. And I thought our guys worked very hard. In the end though, you either win or you learn."
The Rams roster, which is made up of primarily 18 and 19-year-old's, will lose two players next season due to age overage. Goalie Devon Carroll and defenceman Parker Stewart will be the only ones to hang up their skates. This puts the team in a great position to capitalize on their success next year with many of the same players, Mason added.
The Gens will continue their playoff run and are set to face Red Deer in a best of seven series beginning March 3 at home.
Jones said there's little time to celebrate as the team is back to the ice for practice on Tuesday.
"It's a whole different preparation for Red Deer, so we're back to the drawing board to get ready to go," he said.
In 2017, the two teams met in the HJHL final when Cochrane was part of the league's south division. They were bested by the Vipers 4-0 and Red Deer went on to win the championship again in the following year against the Coaldale Copperheads.
The Generals have not won the league since 2009.
In the south, the Okotoks Bisons beat the Strathmore Wheatland Kings by 4-1 in their third-round playoff series and the Medicine Hat Cubs came out on top over Coaldale 4-0. The two winning teams will meet March 1.
The Generals, who have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, will open the northern series final at the Cochrane Arena Thursday at 7:45 p.m.
