Surprise, surprise. The Cochrane Generals face the Okotoks Bisons in Heritage Junior Hockey League second-round playoff action starting tonight (Feb. 19), 8 p.m., at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
There was little doubt, except in Banff, the Bisons would come out of the opening round to challenge Cochrane in Round 2 of the postseason. Okotoks stampeded the Banff Academy Bears 6-2 and 6-5, sweeping the league’s South Division opening playoff series before arriving in Cochrane to open the best-of-7, second-round set.
But, unlike years past, Okotoks is the visiting team; Cochrane earning a first-round bye and second-round home advantage for finishing second in the South, five points ahead of third-place Okotoks. Okotoks is four-time defending league champion, provincial champion in 2013 and eliminated Cochrane in spring ’13 en route to greater postseason success.
Bisons have had Generals number for the last five years. Will that change?
“Just understanding the rivalry between Cochrane and Okotoks, I think it’s great for our players’ psyches going into the playoffs knowing that we won two games and went into overtime against them in another game,” Generals first-year assistant coach Dan Gendur observes of his team’s regular-season success against Okotoks. “It’s huge, especially for young players.”
While Okotoks is battle-hardened from its two-game opener against Banff, Cochrane hasn’t played since Feb. 7, a 6-4 win over Medicine Hat Cubs wrapping up Cochrane’s best regular season since 2009. The layoff, due to the first-round bye, doesn’t worry Gens head coach Evan McFeeters.
“No,” he answers when asked about his team’s layoff. “We have so many guys who are trying to heal injuries. We have some serious injuries that, going into the first round, I don’t know if we would have been a favourite in a first-round series against Banff because we have four top guys out of the lineup for sure.”
Forwards Reed Boothby, Connor Rendell, Steven Tisdale and defenceman Austin Keller are all recovering from various ailments and should be good to go for Game 1 puck drop.
“This week is a confidence-boost for our hockey club knowing that the reinforcements are on the way and we’re going to have a full group of 23 guys ready to go for that Game 1,” McFeeters enthuses.
But these are the playoffs, so Generals have to be on guard.
“We are going to be as prepared as possible going into the playoffs because it could happen in one weekend,” McFeeters cautions. “The celebration we are having now (for finishing second) could be done for in one weekend. We don’t want that to happen.”
Gens F Talus Hume. Gens reg-season scoring leader (19-26-45) went on a tear down the stretch, netting 6 goals, 4 assists in final 5 games, including 2 OT winners.
The defence. As a group, Cochrane’s veteran defensive corps of Craig Packard, Dustin Ponath, Logan Brown, Matt Dunne, Austin Keller (injured) and rookie Matt Kaczur have played a big part in the team’s success. Particularly in the team’s final 12 regular-season games, where Cochrane went 10-2 (losing to Div.-leading Coaldale twice) down the stretch, holding opponents to 3.33 goals per game. Starting G Ty Robinson has been off the chain, winning eight starts down the stretch with backup Mack Chalmers winning twice.
3 (last week, 3)
Cochrane won the regular-season series over Okotoks 2-1-1, winning the last two meetings (4-1 in Okotoks Feb. 6 and 3-2 in Cochrane Jan. 16.) Okotoks blanked Cochrane 3-0 Oct. 18 in Cochrane, and won 3-2 in overtime Nov. 21 in Okotoks. In four regular-season games, the teams tied 9-9.
