Generals Fall To Visiting Flyers

The Generals looked to rebound against High River Saturday night and stay in the hunt for home ice advantage in the first round of playoffs. Cochrane wanted to start off strong and forget about the deflating loss from the previous night. As soon as the game started the Generals controlled the puck and sent shot after shot at the Flyers net. After numerous chances to score it was High River who struck first on the PP. The Generals looked to get momentum back on their side and 5 minutes later they knotted the score at 1. Danny McSween buried his team leading 31st of the year with assists going to Jonny Pictin and Darren Schmautz. Less then a minute later Jay Labelle finished off a play from Mike Matlo and Taylor Irvin to give the Gens the lead. The lead was short lived though as Cochrane took their foot off the pedal for a shift and the Flyers took advantage and tied the game at 2. The Generals went back to work and drew a penalty. The potent PP was back on the ice and the McSween, Pictin, Schmautz line clicked again with Pictin potting his 25th goal this season. After the opening 20 minutes the shot clock read 31-8 for the Gens.
 
A long break between periods seemed to slow Cochrane's momentum. It took until the 5 minute mark for the Generals to increase their lead. The team again capitalized on the powerplay and McSween put home his second of the game after stud d-man Mike Cann fired a shot on net. Again as the case has been for most of the season the young Generals squad seemed to lose their focus after a goal and High River cut the deficit in half two minutes later. The score after the 2nd period was 4-3 and the shots remained in the Gens favour by a huge margin, 38-18.
 
With a 1 goal lead going into the final period the Generals looked to clamp down and play a solid final 20 minutes. That was not that case as another mental mistake led to the Flyers tieing the game early. The goal rattled the young squad and another mental lapse 9 minutes later cost Cochrane another goal. Now trailing the Generals woke up a bit and started to play better hockey. After sending another 11 shots on net the score still read 5-4 and the clock ran down. A disappointed Generals team headed into the dressing room to regroup and get ready for the tough playoff grind. For the Generals to be successful again they need to bare down and focus for the full 60 minutes.  They need to start to do the little things right and take care of their own zone first.  The shot clock was much closer at the end of the 3rd period, 49-35 for Cochrane. The Generals special teams were a bright spot in this game as the PP scored 3 goals and the PK killed off 4/5 penalties.

Generals Player of the Game: Danny McSween