In the still relatively young Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) season, the Cochrane Generals junior 'B' hockey team has seemingly found their stride with their first three-game winning streak after an 8-0 thumping of the Lomond Lakers on Oct. 27. Cochrane was dominant from start to finish throughout the course of the game, getting three first period goals off the sticks of co-captains Brandon Aab and Chris Sambrook while also getting a goal from Jordan Fisher just minutes after Sambrook had scored. The Generals out shot Lomond 18-1 in the period, flexing their muscles on the newly-named expansion franchise. The second period was much the same with Cochrane pouring in another three goals, two coming from River Ross who scored his third and fourth of the season while the other came from rookie Ben Davidson after he connected on a nice pass from Scott Shugg to make it 6-0 in favour of the home side heading into the third frame. In the final period, Cochrane got goals from Ryan Davis at the 5:18 mark of the third as well as Sam Norris potting his second of the season with just over a minute to go in the game to close out the scoring with the Generals putting up an eight spot on the Lakers. Cochrane was relentless throughout the evening firing 50 shots while only allowing 14, which goaltender Robert Michetti mostly turned away with ease. Generals head bench boss Travis McMillan said his team was doing the little things right in order to get the victory and bumping their record up to 5-4 after a three-game win streak should give the team confidence moving forward. "We did a very good job of setting the tempo extremely early for the game. What I've been preaching to the guys over the last five or six games is that we as a hockey team need to dictate the tempo and style of play especially being in our home rink. We need to get the crowd involved early as well as get the guys rolling as fast as they can ... we want to get our assignments and jobs taken care of as fast as possible so it was a good thing to see and it was terrific to see how they responded and started the game off so quickly," McMillan said. "I think the winning streak just goes to show that we can handle anything that an opposing team can throw at us ... unfortunately two weeks ago when we went up to Red Deer, we didn't have the same result as we did when we played them here at home ... to be able to get that win and steal two points from one of the top teams in the league, it goes to show you what you can accomplish as a team." "When guys do their jobs, stay out of the box and we get good penalty killing and forecheck. Playing Three Hills and then Lomond who is an expansion team, you don't necessarily know what you're going to get into with that type of program with it being their first year in the league, but having a stretch where you can win three games in a row is huge in the standings." The Generals will now host a pair of home games on Nov. 2 against the Blackfalds Wranglers with puck drop going at 7:30 p.m. as well as Nov. 4 against these same Lomond Lakers at 3:45 p.m.
