The Cochrane Generals are back. The local hockey heroes skated into the brand new Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) season when the team dropped a 4-1 decision at the hands of the Mountainview Colts on Sept. 29. The game started out on an early goal from the Colts, just six minutes into the game giving the visitors an early 1-0 lead, but it was quickly responded to by a goal from Braden Bain who took a pass from Zach Cugnet and rifled a shot past the Mountainview goaltender at the 11:25 mark of the first period. That was as close as the Generals would come though as Mountainview would score twice in the second extending their lead to 3-1 while also adding an empty net goal with 20 seconds remaining in the game. Knute Loe got the start for Cochrane, kicking aside 20 of the 23 shots he faced during the contest. Head coach Travis McMillan said it was a tough opening game for his club and that they'll need to improve on some things moving forward in order to be successful. "We had an OK first period. We know what Mountainview can do, they're a gritty hockey team that likes to get under your skin and they like to agitate guys and throw teams off their game ... through the second and third period, they certainly did that which is unfortunate because we had a game plan going into the game," McMillan said. "After the first period, we didn't really follow through with that plan and it was one of the main reasons why we came out with the loss. I had a sneaking suspicion that with the loss of some of our key players, we wouldn't have nearly the same scoring punch as we've had in the past and knowing that going into the season, I figured we'd win a lot of close games." "In fairness to the guys, I think we have some decent hockey players that have some extraordinary abilities to help us win those games, we just need to make sure that we stay focused, stick to our forechecks, play good defence, put a lot of pucks on net and stay out of the penalty box and I think that was one of the reasons why we lost ... we got into a little bit of trouble with the penalties, didn't get as many pucks on net as we needed to and were scrambling in our own zone at times so those are things we need to improve on in the coming weeks here." The Generals also played their first regular season game at the Cochrane Arena in their home opener rather than their former home at Spray Lake Sawmills Sports Centre to try and gain more of a junior hockey atmosphere, something that McMillan said didn't go unnoticed. "The only tricky part about playing in Spray Lakes is that it's so big. The ceiling is extremely high and the rink seats about 1,000 fans and in the arena at any given time which if you don't get a big enough crowd, it kind of takes away from the atmosphere I guess," McMillan said. "We already played a couple exhibition games at the old rink and even if you don't get a huge crowd, it still feels like there's a junior hockey atmosphere ... we were lucky enough to get about 300 people in attendance for the home opener and it was fantastic. A couple of our parents came in and they said the line to get into the rink was actually out the door, which is always exciting to hear especially in our town to have the support of the community, it's really awesome. It was fun to have that many people in the rink and we look forward to having that type of crowd at future home games as well." The Generals will now have a busy upcoming schedule of games, with a three and three upcoming between Oct. 5 and 7. Cochrane will start off by heading to Airdrie to face the Thunder before returning home the following night to tangle with the Stettler Lightning. The team will then once again pack up and hit the road to Coaldale where they'll face the Copperheads.
