Two words: Team defence.
When you give up an average of 7.5 goals in your first four regular-season games, your defence, or lack thereof, is showing.
So when the Cochrane Generals shut down the visiting Airdrie Thunder 5-1 in Heritage Junior Hockey League play Oct. 7 at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre, you could almost cut Cochrane’s feeling of relief with a knife.
With the defensive turnaround, the Generals (1-3-1) won their first game of the season, got rookie goalie Myles Magnusson his first win and rookie forward Reed Boothby scored his first-ever HJHL goal. It was also rookie head coach Ken Soloski’s inaugural win in junior.
“This one I like, it’s my first one in this league,” said coach Soloski following the game. “It means something for sure. Especially the way the boys played; they played all three zones.”
It was Airdrie (2-3, 1 OT loss) which suffered from defensive lapses in the Sunday-nighter in Cochrane.
“They came out hard, and we didn’t play that great” lamented Thunder defenceman Ashton Sheen outside the dressing room following the game.
The Thunder kept Cochrane off the board until the final minute of the first period, when Daniel Bunnah and Ian McRae both solved starting Thunder goalie Brett Monkman just before the break.
The Generals scored a pair of power-play markers in the second period, including Boothby’s first as a General, to go up 4-0 after 40 minutes.
“I’m pretty fired up about it,” Boothby said of his first career goal, on a breakaway, in HJHL play. He came out of the penalty box, took a chip up the boards from Tyson Soloski and broke in alone before sneaking the puck between Monkman’s legs. “It feels a lot more special than in those prior years (of minor hockey).”
Magnusson had a front-row seat for Cochrane’s defensive gem, a far cry from the first four games of the season when opponents were skating through the Generals like guano through a goose.
“For me, as a goalie, pretty much easier shots,” the Generals netminder said of the effects of an improved defence. “I could really tell that there were easier shots today.
“Back-checking and smart plays with the defence. Back-checking’s the main one, though.”
Coach Soloski agreed with Magnusson’s assessment.
“We’ve been harping on it all the time. You can’t let seven goals a game in and expect to win,” he said. “It’s been something we’ve been working on in practice. And team defence worked today.”
Dane Gallant converted a feed from Donavon Henrion on the power play to give the Airdrie bench a lift early in the third period, but Cochrane’s Bunnah got that one back two minutes later.
