While the Cochrane Generals only sit one game above .500 with a record of 8-7, they have potentially turned a corner on their Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) season. The team had a pair of road games on Nov. 8 and Nov. 10 and while they fell 7-6 to the Mountainview Colts, they managed to bounce back to beat the Blackfalds Wranglers 6-4… after those two games, the Gens are 3-1 during the month and have scored 22 goals in the past four contests.
Gens goaltender Erik Garber said it makes his job a bit easier knowing his team is putting the puck in the net, but he still needs to do his job.
“It’s nice and it’s always in the back of my head, but I still try to focus on what I can control and that is keeping pucks out of our net,” Garber said.
“I can’t control how many goals we put up in a game, just how many we give up.”
The game against Mountainview was a freewheeling, high-scoring affair with a total of 13 goals on a 72 shots combined between the two teams.
The Colts raced out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period, before Brandon Aab got the Generals on the board with 29 seconds remaining in the first period. The two teams then traded goals, scoring two apiece to make the game 5-3 after the second frame. Cochrane saw goals from Jordan Fisher and Slater Ransom.
Mountainview would score twice more, and the Generals comeback would fall short after Carter Cugnet, Braden Bain and Aab scored in the third to make it a one-goal game, but couldn’t find the equalizer.
Garber who was fresh off being named HJHL Goaltender of the Week, didn’t have his best game, stopping 19 of the 26 shots he faced … Aab led the way offensively for the Gens with two goals and an assist and defenceman Will Gretton had two assists.
Cochrane showed they’re a resilient group, bouncing back two nights later with an improbable comeback win over Blackfalds. Talus Hume started the scoring for the Generals, but the Wranglers would score the next four goals in the game to take a 4-1 lead heading into the third period. Scott Shugg scored two goals while Ransom, Austin Keller and Colton Wong also scored in the final frame as the Generals scored five goals in the period to win 6-4.
Shugg was the Generals’ leading goal scorer in the game with his seventh and eighth goals of the season, and Talus Hume had a goal and an assist in the victory.
Cochrane once again fired 40-plus shots at the opposing team’s netminder, and Garber had a nice bounce back game of his own, shrugging off a tough stretch in the first and second to shut the door on Blackfalds the rest of the game… he finished with 24 saves on 28 shots.
The Kirkland, WA., native says the win really shows how much character the Gens have in their dressing room and he was happy to have a rebound game.
“Yeah, it was nice to come back with that win against Blackfalds,” Garber said.
“They are one of the top teams in the league so it was a nice bounce back for the team as well as myself.”
The Generals will have their third straight road game on Nov. 17 against the Stettler Lightning and then will return home the following night to face the Airdrie Techmation Thunder who are currently first place in the HJHL.
“They’re a really good team, we just have to bring what we brought to the table against Blackfalds again against Airdrie,” Garber said.
Just keep our momentum up from that game and bring it into this one.”
Puck drop for the game against the Thunder will go at 7:30 p.m. at Totem One at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
