The Cochrane Generals are proving they can play with the big boys of the Heritage Junior Hockey League's (HJHL) Southern Division, after splitting a home-and-home with the now 17-4 Okotoks Bisons on Dec. 7 and 9. With the Gens sitting in third place in the south just behind Okotoks and Coaldale, having played the upper echelon teams in their division four times (Okotoks three times and Coaldale once) they've managed to come out with two wins, an overtime loss and regulation loss that took place this past weekend. For those keeping track at home, the Generals have tallied a possible five out of seven points against the top teams in their division, helping them earn 28 points, eight points back of Okotoks and 14 back of the Copperheads with at least a game in hand and the second half of games yet to be played. "Coaldale, Okotoks and us have a little bit of a history going one, two and three in the standings for the last couple years now and this year is almost the exact same situation," Generals head coach Travis McMillan said. "Going down to Coaldale or Murray Arena in Okotoks is always going to be a grind, going into their home arenas ... their respective fan bases are very important to them, and the fans have put faith into them to pull out wins, so managing to take away a couple points from overtime losses are very important. Unfortunately, on Friday night we didn't play very well ... they took it to us, controlled the pace and we weren't able to respond." "The guys were annoyed that they didn't play to the best of their abilities and came back on the Sunday knowing it was an important game. Right off the opening face off, it was a night-and-day type game compared to Friday so I thought we responded well in our own rink and controlling most of the play." While they lost 5-2 to Okotoks on Dec. 7, due mostly to the fact that Okotoks raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first two periods before Vance Wesley and Caden Chudleigh made it close, the hometown hockey heroes were able to show that they could bounce back after a tough loss. Cochrane got two goals apiece from Braden Bain and Harry Osler, while Ben Davidson also chipped in with his third goal of the season. Goaltender Erik Garber was spectacular in net, turning away all 47 shots he faced in a 5-0 Generals victory. Garber has picked up his play lately, suiting up for 10 games while sharing the net with fellow goaltenders Robert Michetti and Knute Loe. The young netminder from Kirkland, WA, is 5-2 with a 2.78 goals against average (GAA) and .916 save percentage and a shut out, which is on par with his numbers from last season where he went 15-7, had a 2.79 goals against average and his save percentage was just over .900. "Erik had a bit of a tough go at the beginning of this year, he messed up his ankle a little bit and had to sit out three weeks before being ready to do physio. So all in all, he missed quite a bit of game and practice time due to injury," McMillan said of his goaltender. "Since he's been healthy as of late, we decided to go with him last weekend and the weekend before, which resulted in three straight wins before we decided to put Knute (Loe) in on Friday against Okotoks. That was a little bit of a judgment call by the coaching staff due to Knute playing very well in our game against Okotoks a couple weeks back where we came away with a single point. We thought it was a good time to put him (Knute) in due to that and it would have been Erik otherwise." "I can't say anything bad about our goaltenders play, I think we have three very good goalies. All three are capable of giving us a fighting chance to win hockey games, but overall I think Erik has come off his injury extremely strong, very mentally focused and he's done a wonderful job ... he's making our jobs as the coaching staff very easy by picking him to start most nights knowing he'll give us a chance to win." The Gens play Coaldale three times in the new year, as well as one more game against Okotoks, which would all be prime games to win in order to make up ground in the standings. So where does the team go from here? McMillan has a pretty simple, yet effective answer to that question. "We can't take any game for granted at this point. We're over the halfway point of the season and regardless of who you're playing, you're going to have to fight for every single point you can get," McMillan said. "Having to play Coaldale three more times is going to be a battle, but they haven't come to our rink yet so that will be a plus for us and then playing Okotoks one more time, it's obviously going to be a big two points for us should we get that win." But McMillan also said his team can't be looking to far ahead in the future as they still have a few games before the Christmas break against Three Hills and High River. "We play Strathmore three more times and then Three Hills and High River a couple more times too. Those games are going to be equally as big for us because they set the tone for the playoffs. We want to be in a good position to have a good stretch and a good run," McMillan said. "These upcoming games against Three Hills and High River to finish off the month of December, you have to have those points or else you'll fall down the standings and be on the other side of the top three which is not a place you want to be. You have to claw your way through the division and going through teams like Coaldale, Okotoks and even Strathmore, there's no easy tasks. We have to have the mental strength to push through those games in order to maybe steal two points or have a convincing win like we did against Okotoks."
