After an undefeated run in the Junior B provincial tournament, the Cochrane Generals fell 6-0 to the Fort St. John Huskies in the championship game.
The Huskies used momentum off their win against the Okotoks Bisons in the semi-finals to dominate the game.
Generals captain Patrick Forde said the Huskies had picked up the pace for the championship match.
“They are a fast team,” Forde said in an interview with HNLive after the first period. “It is the fastest game of the tournament.”
The Generals were down 1-0 after the first, but the game got away from them, with three more goals from the Huskies in the second period.
The referees whistled down a Generals’ goal on a high stick from Diago Coelho.
The Huskies sewed up the win in the third period. Forward Alex Nimmo completed a hat trick for a 5-0 lead. Cayden Frenette netted the final goal for the Huskies with 10 minutes left in the game.
“We came out firing,” Frenette said after the second period ended. “We are shutting down their neutral zone play.”
Another Generals goal was called off by the referees due to goalie interference in the third period.
The Generals defeated the Huskies in their first game of the provincial round robin 5-4 and continued undefeated until the gold-medal game. The Huskies suffered their only loss of the tournament to the Generals in that game.
Generals head coach Kurtis Jones said the four games prior to the championship match simply wore down his players.
“It’s a lot of hockey,” he said. “We just lost our legs in the last game.”
The players deserve kudos for their performance at the provincial tournament and the entire season, Jones said.
“I have to give the players all the credit for battling every day,” he said.
This was the first junior B provincial tournament since 2019. The 2020 and 2021 tournaments were cancelled due to COVID-19.
It was hard to keep up the momentum during that time, but Jones said he worked to keep the team cohesive even when they couldn’t play or practice together.
“It was tough – we just had to keep players on the phone. We had meetings, we kept guys interested, we did yoga,” Jones said.
In the upcoming season, there will be four players who age out of the U21 league and another two are leaving, he said. The contracts of the hockey operations team, including Jones, are also up.
“As of now, everyone is returning,” Jones said, but he added they are waiting to hear from the board of directors what they are offering for the coming years.
