If game one of the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) playoffs between the Cochrane Generals and the Agra Risk Wheatland Kings were a boxing match between two heavy weights, they would have spent the night tangled together exchanging body blows round after round until a judge’s decision announced a victor–the Wheatland Kings.

Game two, then, was a classic knockout that saw the Generals land a combo of hooks to the jaw, sending the Kings to the mat, their teeth asunder. The Generals scored seven goals to even up the best-of five series at a game a piece, an auspicious showing in a needed bounce back game for the Generals who fell to the Kings 5-4 in Strathmore the night before.

Five different goal scores contributed for the Generals, who were led on offense by forwards Lincoln Pidsadowski and Evan Malcolm, who scored two goals a piece. Goaltender Isaias Maddigan stopped 25 of 26 shots and was named the third star of the game; Malcolm and Pidsadowski were named as the second and first stars respectively.

A mere 24 hours separated game one and two–a nail biter and a rout–and the friendly confines of home ice was the tale of the tape. “I kind of reference the 12th man in Seattle,” said Generals head coach Derek Bell postgame, referencing the raucous fans of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, comparing that crowd to the Generals own home supporters.

Bell continued: “I thought we did ok last night. I mean, we had a couple of off shifts, but tonight you could feel the crowd.”

In a short five game series, where going down two games to none puts you in a nearly inescapable hole, winning game two on home ice to even the series was something Bell knew his team was capable of.

“Sometimes you can feel different auras of the guys in the room,” he said. “Tonight, you could feel it that the players knew, in our home, this was going to be a big one.”

In the five games the Generals and Kings played during the regular season, the Generals won three of the five, and in all of the games the final scores were separated by a goal or two–except for one. Foretelling a case of deja vu, in early December the Generals scored six goals against the Kings and allowed just a single goal.

The atmosphere of the home crowd Bell spoke of was there at key moments in the first and second periods, especially during a period of play in the games second frame when the Generals scored five goals and chased Kings starter Connor White from the net.

But as the games final result became inevitable, the atmosphere of the SLS Centre slipped into a controlled and mild rhythm, a sign the hundreds of home fans became resigned to the games ultimate end a long time before the final buzzer, and were happy with it.

The Generals will get in a practice on Tuesday before returning to Strathmore for game three on Wednesday. Game four will send the teams back to Cochrane on Friday, February 20.