The Cochrane Generals got their early season litmus test in the relatively young Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) season when they hit the road to face the two-time defending league champion Red Deer Vipers on Oct. 13. The game got off on the wrong foot for the hometown hockey heroes as Red Deer scored two goals in the first 15 minutes of the game and found themselves in a hole early. Generals rookie Vance Wesley scored his first goal of the season 47 seconds after Red Deer made it 2-0 cutting the Vipers lead in half before the home team scored their second power play goal of the game to extend their lead back to two heading into the second frame. Takuro Okada once again cut the deficit to one after he converted on a nice passing play between himself, River Ross and Wesley at the 16:25 mark of the second but the encouraging signs of the comeback were short lived with Red Deer scoring their third power play goal of the contest just four minutes later doubling the lead once again which is how the score would stand heading into the third period. Cochrane got a power play goal to make it 4-3 but it was as close as they'd come in the game as Red Deer once again had an answer for the General goal to make it 5-3, giving the game its final score. Head coach Travis McMillan said there were some positives to take away from the game, but the Generals need to clean up some things in order to turn those losses into wins. "For the most part, we did our jobs. The one thing we really have some concerns about and areas we need to work on is just taking bad penalties at bad times ... we had a handful of penalties there, went on the penalty kill and couldn't finish the two minutes which basically cost us the game. We definitely need to work on staying out of the box and being discipline," McMillan said. "For what it's worth, we did see a few good things. There are a few areas to improve upon but for the most part we worked our forecheck pretty well, I'd like to see more puck control in the offensive zone so we can create more scoring chances but going into Red Deer is always a tough situation especially with them having a new arena ... I think that obviously helped because we didn't see it last year because we didn't play them after they moved out of their old stomping ground at the Red Deer Arena. We actually play them on Sunday at our rink in Cochrane so I think we'll be a little better prepared on how to handle them." In addition to their game on Sunday against Red Deer, the Generals will have their second three games in three nights with the other two coming against the Medicine Hat Cubs on Friday and the Three Hills Thrashers at home on Saturday. "I think we just need to go back to the basics. We've preached a lot to the guys where the key areas of interest where we need to be better and where we reside as a hockey team in talent, skill level and overall grittiness so we're obviously going to reevaluate here and will be working on a lot of things in practice to make ourselves tougher to play against in both the offensive and defensive zone," McMillan said. "We just need to be better prepared. I'm the kind of guy that wants to be prepared in every aspect and that allows your players to be prepared ... I don't think we've been doing a good enough job in pre-game or practice preparation so we just need to be a little more diligent on the small details." The Generals head coach also had some high praise for his captains Brandon Aab and Chris Sambrook who are among the league leaders in points with Aab registering one goal and four assists for five points in five games while Sambrook has two goals and two assists in the same amount of games. "When we lost Colton (Wong) to his job up north unfortunately, we kind of had to take a look at what our leadership group was going to look like. The more I started talking to Brandon from late August to mid September when we had our first game, he was sending me texts, giving me phone calls and all of a sudden it kind of evolved into what we're looking for in a captain," said McMillan. "I said to him one day, 'Listen you're talking like a mature young man and a good hockey player and if you can control and harness that energy you're going to be wearing a letter this year.' I knew he was going to be wearing a letter, I just wasn't sure of which one but as the year progressed it became evident that Brandon and Chris had the idea that the team should be in a specific place and they reflect that with their play on the top line. Brandon has the ability to shoot, pass and grind while Sam has some immense speed that he shows flashes of throughout the game and it compliments Brandon because they can work together and feed one one another which has helped out program for sure." The Generals two home games on Saturday and Sunday against Three Hills and Red Deer are scheduled to begin at 7 and 3:15 respectively.
