Generals drop pair of games in league action
The Moose Jaw Generals have a great work ethic but aren’t getting the kind of results they were hoping for. Instead of commanding wins, the team has found themselves enduring some bad and unusual luck at the most inconvenient times, resulting in a win-loss record a bit less impressive than they were hoping for at this point in the season.
Take Sunday’s contest against the Notre Dame Hounds for example: the Generals outshot Notre Dame 40-35 and used their speed and skill to create plenty of chances. In doing so they drew a slew of penalties. But instead of making the Hounds pay for their actions, Moose Jaw ended up going a stunning 0-for-8 on the power play and eventually lost 4-2 with an empty net goal.
That defeat came on the heels of a 4-3 overtime loss on Friday in Swift Current where the team found themselves exceptionally shorthanded due to injury and illness, only to lose forward Ben Wourms-Rowe to a check-from-behind penalty early and having to move defenceman Jake Grasdal up as a forward to take his place.
So even though the Generals aren’t where they’d like to be record-wise – they sat at 6-5-0-1 as of Oct. 28 – the potential for good things is still there.
“I was really, really happy with the effort and not so much the outcome,” Generals coach Ray Wareham said after the Notre Dame loss. “I thought we did a lot of encouraging things today and positioning-wise we were starting to simplify our game a bit. There were lots of positives; we should let the loss hurt and sting a bit, but if we keep playing like that and staying positive we’ll be fine.” Against Notre Dame, Cody Davis and Evan Sare each had a goal and an assist as the Generals trailed 1-0 and 3-1 by period. Reece Hodson made 32 saves.
In Swift Current against the Legionnaires, the Generals led 2-1 through two periods on goals from Sare and Davis. Jake Palmer added a power play marker midway through the third to put Moose Jaw up 3-2, but the Legionnaires tied the game with 4:01 remaining. There the score remained until Boston Bird scored the overtime winner 2:23 in.
“Our message has to be ‘we’ve gotta work; we’ve gotta work’ and that’s what the kids have been doing,” Wareham said. “But even Friday night in Swift Current, we lost a tough one in overtime but we were right there even though we were shorthanded. If can if we can continue to keep working like that we’ll be just fine.”
The Generals are back in action Oct. 31 when they travel to Saskatoon to face the Blazers. Next home action is Nov. 3 at Mosaic Place against the Hounds and Nov. 4 at home against the Blazers. Both weekend games are 1:30 p.m.