Generals Come Back To Quiet Thunder

The Generals over came a first period 5-1 deficit to beat the Airdire Thunder 7-6. The divison rivals put on quite the show for the Cochrane hockey fans at the Totem Arena. Airdire came out flying to start the game and the young Generals squad found themselves on their heels. The Thunder opened the scoring at 1:58 on the powerplay. The Generals replied right away when Jonny Pictin snapped his 1st of the night past Jeff Gardner only 48 seconds later. But the Thunder seemed to be too much to handle as they scored 4 unanswered goals during the period to build a seemingly unsurmountable lead.

During the first intermission the Generals coaching staff reminded the team to stick to their game plan and challenged to them to step up to the plate against a stronger team. Cochrane responded and started to swing the momentuem early in the middle frame. Darren Schmautz cut the lead to 5-2 at 7:35 after tapping home a rebound off a Maddison Smiley point shot. Then Kenny Quinn, who stepped in goal in relief after the 1st period made his biggest save of the year. Quinn slid across the crease and stacked the pads turning away a point blank one-timer. The save seemed to be the game's turning point. Midway through the period Mike Matlo decided that he was going to put his team on his back. Matlo stepped out of the penalty box and found himself on a breakaway. Matlo's shot beat Gardner but not the post. Matlo didnt quit on the play and moved to the slot where he recieved a great pass and one timed a shot on goal but Gardner turned it away. As the great shift continued Malto would not be denied. With the puck yet again on his stick, #11 skated to the slot and fired home a lazer to the top shelf. With that goal momentuem was firmly on Cochrane's side. On the Matlo's next shift he took a great stretch pass from playmaker Jay Labelle and streaked in all alone, making no mistake to cut the lead to 5-4. The Generals kept up the pressure and 2 minutes later they were rewarded with a chance to tie on a powerplay. On the man advantage Matlo completed the natural hat-trick when he banged home a cross ice feed from Tyson Soloski. The Generals skated into the 2nd intermission with the score tied and crowd in a frenzy.

Wth the Gens battling back in the 2nd period it set the tone for a great finish. Labelle picked up a break out pass in the neutral zone early in the third and went to work. Showing off his soft set of hands Labelle dangled through three Airdire defenders and roofed a backhand to give his team their first lead of the game. The Thunder didnt roll over after the go-ahead goal and stormed back to tie the score.  With time winding down and both teams trading scoring chances Landon Bergh was hauled down on a breakaway. Berghy was rewared a penalty shot but the Thunder netminder stood tall, giving his team a chance. But it seemed like it was only fitting for the Generals to come out on top. Pictin walked across the Thunder blue line and unleashed his lethal shot that slammed off the post , of fthe back of Gardner and past the goal line. With the slim lead Quinn and the Generals' best defenders went to work and secured the exciting come from behind win. With the win Cochrane extended their impressive streak to 14 win and opened up a slight gap atop the Central Divison. The rematch goes Friday November 26th at 8pm on Airdrie's home ice.