After a few weeks off for Christmas break, the Cochrane Generals got back into the swing of things, kicking off the second half of the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) season with a pair of games on Jan. 5 and 6.
The first pitted the Generals against the Coaldale Copperheads. The game didn’t go exactly as planned for Cochrane, as they lost to their bitter rivals by a score of 5-2. Coaldale opened the scoring at the 5:08 mark of the first period on a power play goal, but the Gens would tie, and take the lead in the second frame, on goals by Scott Shugg and Jordan Fisher. The rest of the game would be all Copperheads, as they scored four consecutive goals in the third period to give themselves the 5-2 win.
Erik Garber got the start in goal for Cochrane, making 21 saves on the 26 shots he faced, while six players from the Gens finished the game with a single point including Shugg and Fisher, who scored their 13th and fifth goal respectively.
If Cochrane had any frustrations from the game the night before, they took them out on the visiting Medicine Hat Cubs with a dominating 8-0 victory. Talus Hume got the ball rolling early for his team, scoring his 22nd goal of the season to give the Generals a 1-0 lead after the first. The second was much of the same, with Brandon Aab and Slater Ransom scoring to open the floodgates in the third … Harry Osler scored twice with Jarod Domingo and Austin Keller also adding tallies. Ransom scored his second of the game to close out the scoring.
The home side fired 45 shots on an exhausted Medicine Hat goaltender; an attack led by the Generals’ two leading scorers Slater Ransom and Talus Hume. Ransom finished the night with two goals and three assists for five points and Hume right behind him with a goal and three assists. Eight other Generals players also registered at least a point in the game. Knute Loe was perfect on the evening, making all 23 saves he needed to for the victory.
Generals’ defenceman Will Gretton who recently returned from injury, said the bounce-back game against Medicine Hat was needed after a tough opening game against the Copperheads.
“Sitting for five weeks definitely takes your mind away from how fast the game is. Physically, I felt better than I did coming into the season being completely healthy, but there were just some general hesitations on mental decisions that affected the outcome during the Coaldale game,” Gretton said when asked about his first game back.
“I think the room needed the bounce back win. Coaldale put us on a three-game slide going into the Medicine Hat game. We were just focused on getting the win and playing with confidence.”
“Winning by that score with an extra two goals called back on us really gives us a push going into Okotoks Friday.”
The weekend was a busy one for Ransom, Hume and Austin Keller, who were invited to play for Team South in the HJHL’s first league all-star game hosted by the Okotoks Bisons Jan. 7. The South All-Stars won the game by a score of 7-6 in a shootout with Hume registering the game winner. He also had a goal in regulation time, with Ransom also scoring and adding a helper. Generals’ captain Austin Keller was held pointless in the game, but was named an assistant captain for the South side team.
The trio will rejoin their team in order to play another pair of back-to-back games, starting with the Okotoks Bisons on Jan. 12 and return home the following day to host the Strathmore Wheatland Kings.
