It was a topsy-turvy weekend for the Cochrane Generals.
Gens played two games over the weekend against Coaldale Copperheads (13-7, 2nd, Southern Division) and High River Flyers (4-12-3, 6th, Southern Division) as their Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) campaign continues.
The Cochrane team travelled to Copperheads on Nov. 21. Patrick Dove (two), Colton Wong, and Corey Goeson were on the scoreboard for Gens as they fell to a 7-4 defeat.
Goeson, Talus Hume (two), Chad Harrison, Joey Stensland, Ty Milligan, Craig Packard, and Austin Keller all contributed assists.
“Coaldale is a tough barn to win in, and a lot of teams struggle there,” Evan McFeeters, Generals head coach said. “It’s a smaller rink and they pack the place. It was our first time there this year, so it was a learning experience for the club.
“It was disappointing to drop two points against Copperheads, but we’ve got them two more times this year. Those are must-win hockey games for us, because those are going to be the difference maker at the end of the year for the standings.”
On Nov. 22, Gens hosted Flyers in a game where the home side was looking to make up for the previous night’s mistakes.
This was a match-up where tensions ran high throughout, and at times things teetered on complete and utter anarchy.
53 penalties were dished out in total, 36 of which came in the third period as the referee’s decision to try and control every aspect of the game instead of letting players occasionally drop the gloves lead to a complete breakdown of the game as stoppages were continuous in the second and third periods.
Gens took it to the visitors early on, barely allowing them to get out of their d-zone and peppered goalie Tyler Fornwald with shots.
Goeson broke the deadlock with 2:28 remaining in the first. From there, Flyers collapsed like a house of cards, as Packard and Harrison (two), all scored in the final two minutes of the first period to go 4-0 up.
Harrison completed his hat-trick with aplomb, and Hume added a fifth, before Flyers finally got on the scoreboard through a power-play goal from Kody Briggs.
In the third period, Packard (his second of the game), Hume on the power-play (his second), and Harrison (his fourth rounded out the scoring for Gens.
Flyers replied with three power-play goals from Josh Younker, Liam Hall, and Briggs (with his second of the game).
“We played very well in the first period,” McFeeters said after the game. “We made some adjustments in the forecheck as we’re trying to give some different teams different looks as the season moves forward.
“When the game unraveled halfway through the second period, our emotional control and focus on the bench lacked a little bit. We were worrying what was happening with the referees, which was something that we couldn’t control. We discussed it with the guys and just said to stay focused and play Cochrane Generals hockey no matter what.”
Gens have no problem scoring goals against anyone, but does McFeeters think that his team is having trouble stopping opponents from scoring?
“Our goal for the last couple weeks has been to not give up so many goals,” he confessed.
“It’s a work in progress. We want to be able to score goals, and to do so, you have to take risks sometimes. We need to keep working as a unit so that we make sure those risks don’t end up in the back of our net.”
Generals now have a busy weekend to look forward to as they take on Red Deer Vipers at home (Nov. 27), as well as, Flyers (Nov. 28) and Banff Academy Bears (Nov. 29) away.
“This is a big weekend for us,” McFeeters confirmed. “If we can get six points out of this and stay ahead of the group, it will set us up big time going into the Christmas break.”
How does he feel that his team will cope with playing three games in less that 72 hours?
“We’ve talked about in the past,” he said. “The players have to take care of themselves, and we’re changing things up a bit in practice.
“It’s going to beat up our boys, but we have a very team hockey team. We plan to roll four lines the first couple of nights, and hopefully we’ll have enough gas for the Sunday game.”
