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Generals win HJHL north championship, clinch spot in final

The Gens' win last night was a little extra shiny

The HJHL north championship trophy belongs to the Cochrane Generals.

The team took the series 4-1 over the Red Deer Vipers on home ice in front of hundreds of fans last night (March 10) and moves on to face either the Okotoks Bisons or the Medicine Hat Cubs in the league final. 

For the third consecutive time, Gens Connor Stephenson opened the night to put the Gens on the scoreboard first. Back-to-back goals from his stick in the first period helped his team to clinch the North Division in Game 5 with a final score of 4-2.

"We've been looking forward to this moment since the start of playoffs," said Stephenson. "To get to where we are right now is exactly what we drew up and it's gonna keep going."

Also scoring for the team was Jamal Kalaf and Dagan Kadlec, while goalie Davyn LaRocke put up a wall to stop 17 shots from Red Deer.

The Vipers scored their only two goals of the game in the third period, one of them off the stick of team captain Jace Paarup on a penalty shot, but it was too little, too late.

Head coach Kyle Scott said he's proud of how far the team has come, especially in the face of injuries plaguing the roster recently. 

"We had eight regular players out entering playoffs, which is unheard of," Scott said. "We pieced it together with some affiliates and guys whose seasons were done — they stepped into our lineup. I thought we did everything we could to get where we are.

"Cochrane is a good hockey team and they're gonna give whoever they play in the final a good push. If we were completely healthy with all of our regulars in the lineup, we believe this could have been a different series and a different result."

The last time the Generals went to finals was in the 2017-18 season, where under representation of the South Division, they faced, and lost to, the Red Deer Vipers 4-0. While they lost that series, they went on to win silver in Alberta Junior B provincials.

The year before, Cochrane met the Mountainview Colts in the league final and lost 4-2.

It's been 12 years since the team has won the HJHL championship but they came close again in the 2020-21 season, before COVID-19 cut playoffs short. 

They were tied 2-2 in the south final with none other than the Okotoks Bisons, who currently lead their south final series against the Medicine Hat Cubs 3-1.

If it goes ahead, the matchup will have been a year in the making. The two teams have met on the ice only once since.

"All we know about them is from that second game of the year [in the regular season] when we played them once, and only once, and beat them 6-2," Stephenson said. "We know they've acquired a couple other good Junior A players, so we're just gonna have to go in with our heads down and do our job."

Gens head coach Kurtis Jones said he believes the team can carry the momentum from the last two series runs into whoever they face in the final as long as they stay focused. 

"It was a great series and our guys played well," he said. "Now we've just gotta keep our heads, keep our minds — it's all mental."

Game 5 in the best of seven south final goes down in Okotoks tonight.

The Gens will also appear at the Alberta Junior B provincials in Wainwright later this year.

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