The stage was set, the curtain went up… and the villains stole the show.
The stage was set, the curtain went up… and the villains stole the show.
Following a record regular season and strong early playoff showing, the Cochrane Generals were eliminated from the Heritage Junior B Hockey League's (HJHL) best-of-seven league final series by the Mountainview Colts on March 23.
The Colts' 4-2 win at home in Didsbury gave the HJHL champs a 4-2 series victory. The Gens' loss put an early end to a season, some say, was Cochrane's to lose. The Colts, obviously, put the above notion to rest with their grit and determination in the final.
Mountainview jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the March 23 deciding tilt, with Dennis Lawrence and Mitchell Visser scoring 20 seconds apart midway through the first period of Game 6.
Following a scoreless second period, Cochrane's Chad Harrison pumped some life into the visitors with a goal just 1:20 into the third. But as the Gens were inflating their comeback balloon, Mountainview's Cole Sutherland plunged in the dagger, scoring just 29 seconds after Harrison.
Cochrane's Tyler Kinnon scored to make it 3-2, but Ryan Klinck's unassisted marker sealed the deal with less than eight minutes left in the third.
The March 23 series-decider in Didsbury followed a March 22 road win by Mountainview, the only road win in the series, in which the Colts skated out of Cochrane with a 5-4 victory.
Despite being an evenly-contested game in the first period, Colts managed to take the lead through a short-handed goal from Evan Ingram going into the second.
Gens bounced back in excellent fashion with a five-minute spell, where they grabbed three goals.
Slater Ransom nabbed a power-play goal (Chad Harrison and Corey Goeson assisting) before Kurt Thrussell and George King made it a 3-1 game. Connor Rendell and Talus Hume both picked up helpers.
However, that's when things started going horribly wrong.
After a terrible defensive mistake, Tyson Schmidt was able to score on the breakaway for Colts to make it a 3-2 game.
Less than a minute later, Austin Pedersen tied it up at 3-3. Two minutes later, another defensive mistake allowed Keaton Perigny to give Colts a 4-3 lead as the Gens collapse continued.
To add injury to insult, Colton Anderson made it 5-3 for the visitors going into the final period of play.
A stellar backhander at the near post by Harrison (Brett Hamer assisting) on the power-play, made things interesting at 5-4.
Harrison had another chance a few minutes later, but his deflection went over the top of the net from less than a metre out.
Brett Berndt had a golden opportunity from in close, but as the puck came to him he flubbed his shot. With 10 seconds remaining, Ransom had a shot clank off the post from a goalmouth scramble, but despite Gens pressing late on they couldn't find the equalizer.
“It seemed the bounces went their way, and the puck ended up in the net, ” said Gens head coach Evan McFeeters.
“We came out in the second and had momentum, but they got a break and seemed to feed off that. That's what it comes down to in tight games like this. You have to take advantage of your opportunities and they did tonight.
“(Colts) did a great job of adjusting to our speed. They were in a defensive shell waiting for us to make a mistake and hit us with the sucker punch. ”
Game six is now back in Didsbury (a barn Gens have yet to win in this season), how does McFeeters feel about going into the lion's den after his team's home ice advantage was shattered?
“There's still an opportunity for us to come back, ” he said.
“We've said before we'd rather win at home, so we might as well go for it there. We have to make sure they don't get the chance to counterpunch like they did tonight. The key is to stay in the moment, we have to go up early and keep our foot on the gas.
“We're going to finish the job that we started this season. ”
If a game seven is necessary, it is scheduled for March 26 at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre. Puck-drop is 7:30 p.m.
