Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
This is hockey.
So when the Cochrane Generals came back from four goals down to tie Coaldale 4-4, the 5-4 loss on a late Copperheads goal blew Cochrane’s playoff-security aspirations to bits.
Fighting for their Heritage Junior Hockey League post-season lives, the Generals bolstered their cause with a 7-2 win over visiting Ponoka Stampeders on Jan. 25. But the Jan. 26 loss to Coaldale in the second of a two-game home stand made it a one-step forward, two-steps-back weekend.
The Generals are fourth in Heritage League Southern Division regular-season standings with 29 points, just one ahead of both Coaldale and Medicine Hat, which have a game in hand.
“They came out and gave us everything we could handle,” said Generals head coach Evan McFeeters after watching his side lose to the Copperheads, who swept the regular-season series 4-0. “They’re a gritty, hard-working hockey team. They have a bunch of big guys who really lean on our defencemen. We know what they do. There are no surprises any more after four games. They dump the puck in deep and attack us.”
And Coaldale attacked early, scoring four unanswered goals before Nathan Granitto put Cochrane on the board with a power-play strike midway through the second period. Several sharp saves from 17-year-old rookie goaltender McKenzie Chalmers late in the second and early in third period kept Cochrane in the game enough to allow Talus Hume, Andrew Bergmann and Corey Goeson to tie it 4-4.
Generals captain Tyson Soloski had a breakaway chance to give Cochrane the lead, but was stoned by Copperheads goalie Daniel Wenham. Coaldale’s Jay Hollingsworth then plunged the dagger in, striking with three minutes from game’s end.
“Even tonight, the first 40 minutes is nothing we wanted to do,” Soloski said outside the dressing room following the Coaldale game. “It just shows we’re a good team. We just put one period in and we should have won that game.
“If we play 60 minutes we can beat anybody in this league.”
With five games left and a playoff berth still at stake, the Generals are going to have to break out the heavy artillery down the stretch.
“We have to come to practice prepared and ready to work. Then come to our games prepared,” Soloski stated. “We have five games left. They’re all big ones, but we can control our own destiny. We can win all the games left. We can get third place if we want it.”
The Generals begin their stretch drive Feb. 1 at home against Airdrie, 7:30 p.m. puck drop, at Spray Lake Centre.
