The Cochrane Generals have added a few fresh recruits to go with a room full of veterans as they mount up for the 2015-16 Heritage Junior Hockey League campaign.
With a 3-0 exhibition season bagged and tagged, the real battles begin tomorrow (Sept, 25) in Airdrie and Saturday in Strathmore.
“The preseason did its job for us. We were just evaluating our players and trying to get down to our roster numbers,” Generals third-year head coach Evan McFeeters says. “We got a lot of exposure in town for our team this year and we got to play all our exhibition games at home.”
Cochrane hosted the three-day, four-team Exhibition Showdown featuring the hosts and HJHL teams Airdrie Thunder, Strathmore Wheatland Kings and Three Hills Thrashers. Generals hopefuls who made the training-camp cut earned extended tryouts in Showdown games. They didn’t make McFeeters’s chore of whittling down the roster any easier, as Cochrane defeated Airdrie 4-2, Three Hills 5-2 and Strathmore 6-1. But he’s made his early roster calls for the first weekend of Cochrane’s regular season starting Sept. 25 at Airdrie.
Thirty-eight regular-season dates await a Gens team that finished 25-10-3 last season, earning a first-round playoff bye before being swept from the postseason by Okotoks Bisons. The game hasn’t changed, nor the goal. Only the way the team is talking about it is different.
“As a team, we only have one goal in mind at the end of this year. Everyone on our team agrees with that one goal in mind. Our expectation is to do whatever it takes to be there. We’ve already looked at what type of teams we’re up against this year and we feel we match up against every single one of them,” McFeeters says. “There’s a group of players who’ve been playing together for 4-5 years, they feel that this might be their last chance to do something special together. At the end of the day, we have one special goal in mind, and we’re not going to start using the word quite yet, but we all know what it means in our room.”
McFeeters won’t say it, but the Eagle will. Generals want to march straight to the league title then shoot their way up to provincials. But that’s seven months away.
“We don’t want to be looking all the way to March and April right now. Our biggest thing is we have to take care of business in our division,” McFeeters insists. “Each weekend is a new test for our team and we want to get better after each and every game. Right now we’re 3-0 in our preseason, but that doesn’t matter. Now we go to Airdrie, that’s going to be our first test. We want to be a way better team than we were the night before.”
With their soldiers and strategy in place, only time will tell if the Generals make it over that hill.
Levi Barker, forward
Played with current Generals snipers like Slater Ransom and Brad Bergshoeff in 2013-14 with Bow Valley Midget AA Timberwolves, racking up 20 goals and 21 assists in 31 games in his final South Central Alberta Midget AA Hockey League (SCAHL) season.
“Levi Barker opened our eyes this weekend. We’ve had him on our radar for a few years,” McFeeters says of the Cochrane Minor Hockey product. “This is basically his last kick at the can to make our squad and he’s done everything in his power to continue on with our team in the regular season. We’re going to give him a nice, long look with regular-season games coming up.”
Noah Bigland, defence
Another graduate of Midget AA T-Wolves program. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound defenceman scored three goals and added four assists last season in 33 SCAHL Midget AA games, and played for the North in the league’s annual all-star game.
“Noah was extremely impressive in camp. He was a little unsure if he could play at this level and was a little undecided if he was going to attend training camp,” McFeeters says of the lanky 17-year-old Cochranite. “Thankfully, he did, because our veteran guys welcomed him right away. He’s right now in our top-six and come opening night he’s going to be paired with our top guy, Craig Packard, and we’ll see what he can do when the pace is a little bit higher in the regular season.”
Tyler Kinnon, defence
The former Kootenay International Junior Hockey League defenceman made himself right at home upon arriving at Generals camp Sept. 12. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Calgarian won a league championship with Kimberley Dynamiters last season. Gens expect the 20-year-old will do some heavy lifting here.
“Tyler Kinnon’s already made a huge impact on our back end,” McFeeters relates. “He’s going to play on our top-4 defence. He’s going to be playing on the power play and PK (penalty kill). He showed some leadership and toughness by dropping the gloves with a Strathmore heavyweight (in final preseason game).”
Ty Milligan, forward
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound forward was listed as an affiliate player for Gens last year, spending most of the season with the T-wolves Midget AA program. Milligan, who turns 18 in November, scored 10 goals and added five assists in 26 games last season with Midget T-wolves.
“Up front, we’re excited to see what Ty Milligan can bring to our team,” McFeeters says of the Cochranite.
Joey Stensland, forward
The 17-year-old Calgarian was a reserve with Strathmore Wheatland Kings last season, getting into two games, and earned an assist with the KIJHL Fernie Ghostriders earlier this season before attending Generals training camp Sept. 12-13. The six-foot, 180-pound forward should start in Cochrane’s bottom-6 forward group with a chance to move up.
“He’s a big body. He’s only a 17-year-old kid,” McFeeters relates. “We’re going to start him out as a depth forward.”
Unlike last season, when Generals carried three goalies into the Christmas break, second-year goalie Ty Robinson is “the” guy in net for Cochrane right off the hop. The 6-foot-1, 160-pound Cochranite won 11 of 15 starts last season and turned in a 3.30 goals-against average. The starting job is the 20-year-old keeper’s to lose.
“For us to have any success, Ty Robinson is going to have to be our MVP this year,” McFeeters insists. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, but I think he can do that. He was our best player down the stretch last year. Our expectations are high for him.”
. . . and there are plenty in the room to replace Chris Hugo, who aged out of junior hockey last spring. Experience, skill, leadership and camaraderie define this group, the majority of them playing together for years up through the Cochrane Minor Hockey ranks.
“For our captains, we haven’t discussed that yet,” McFeeters says. “But we do have a strong leadership group with our returning core. We’ll talk to the vets and get a feel for who wants to wear the “C” and “A”s. I think it’s going to be done by committee this year. You might see a larger group of captains and assistants than you usually would. And that’s how we approach it. We’re proud we can boast five or six potential captains on our roster.”
