The goals keep coming. And so do the wins.
Cochrane Generals tripped over their pop-gun October offence in a 3-2 Heritage Junior Hockey League overtime loss Nov. 21 at Okotoks, only to come firing back in a 7-2 Nov. 22 home victory over Three Hills Thrashers.
Generals are 5-0-1 this month, averaging just over five goals a game. When taken to task after each low-scoring result last month, head coach Evan McFeeters insisted the team was devising ways to increase goal production – getting forwards to the middle of the ice more and moving defencemen into scoring position more often throughout games. It’s working.
The Gens have uncorked their offence, largely, on those two elements alone. The return to health of leading point-getter Slater Ransom (6 goals, 12 assists), the addition of Alberta Junior League recruit Colby Chartier and the revelation of rookie wrecking-ball Steven Tisdale have pumped some serious powder into the Gens muskets. And you can’t ignore “grinder” Corey Goeson, a 5-foot-9 forward who’s set up camp in front of opposing goalies. He leads the team with 10 goals.
“The players have really bought into what we’re teaching,” Generals second-year head coach Evan McFeeters says. “It’s a good feeling now we know we can match up with any team in the league and on any given night we can come away with two points.
“Our team chemistry is through the roof right now.”
Top defenders Craig Packard and Austin Keller have answered the coach’s challenge to wick up their offence. Packard has been deadly on the power play, converting juicy rebounds into goals, he has six on the season, two coming on power plays in the last five games. Keller has a goal and nine assists in 18 games.
“That’s what we’re working on in practice,” McFeeters relates. “Trying to get the defencemen up and trying to get the players into better areas to score goals.”
Goeson (2 goals, 1 assist), Ransom (2g, 1a), Packard, Tyler Nielsen and Kurt Thrussell scored Cochrane’s goals against Three Hills. Mack Chalmers kicked out 30 shots in goal. In Okotoks, Tisdale and Talus Hume scored for Cochrane with Garrett Iverson turning aside 29 Bisons shots.
Strathmore Wheatland Kings (11-8-2, 3rd Southern Division)
at Gens (10-5-3, 4th Southern Division)
Fri, Nov. 28, 7:30 p.m.
Spray Lake Centre
Who’s hot?
Gens forwards Slater Ransom, Talus Hume and Corey Goeson
Who’s not?
The injured guys (coach McFeeters really grappled with that one)
Gens HJHL
Power Ranking
5 (last week, 7)
Movember rising
General manager Jacqueline Hurlbert’s Movember initiative (Gens players growing moustaches in the month of November raising funds for men’s health awareness) has already raised $940 for the Movember Canada campaign. (To contribute to Gens’ Movember total, visit www.cochranegenerals.com or the team’s Facebook page.) Friday’s game is the Gens’ “Mo Game” as the team tops up its Movember fundraising total with help from fans and 50-50 ticket sales. And the moustaches appear to agree with Gens. As the cookie dusters have sprouted, so have the wins. Generals are 5-0-1 in Movember, losing only to Okotoks on the road Nov. 21 in overtime (3-2). Having thrashed Three Hills 7-2 on Nov. 22, Generals have doubled their goals-for output from October, averaging 5 goals for per game this month. All without sacrificing defence, allowing 2.83 goals per game.
Head to head
Gens edged Strathmore 3-2 in overtime Oct. 25 in Strathmore, a month in which Cochrane played five OT contests, winning three while averaging less than 2.5 goals-for per game. With their goal-scoring woes behind them, the Generals should keep pace with Strathmore’s high-powered offence. Wheatland Kings have scored 106 goals in 21 games this season, second only to Coaldale in the Southern Division. Gens have three games in hand on Kings.
