Opening with two wins over tough opponents is exactly how the Moose Jaw Generals wanted to start their regular season.
The Generals completed a 4-3-comeback victory over the Notre Dame Argos on Sunday afternoon at Mosaic Place in Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League action.
“Not the way we want to do it, but this has been two games in a row that our guys showed a lot of character in the third period,” said Ray Wareham, head coach of the Generals. “For being a young team, we are starting to find out a lot about them in the first two games.”
That character in the third period was what helped the Generals seal the victory. After giving up three goals, including one power play marker in the second period to the Argos, Stephen Wilson blasted a shot from the face off dot past Zach Sawchenko for the game winner.
“I didn’t even look, I just shot it and it went in. It doesn’t happen very often,” stated Wilson.
Wareham added: “We got a big goal from Wilson with that hammer shot and that was nice to see.”
The Generals started out strong, scoring two goals in the first period. Regan Nagy got the home team on the board then Nagy dished a beautiful saucer pass to an open Rhett Gardner to tip in past Sawchenko for the Generals second goal. Ben Duperreault tied the game midway through the final frame on a power play marker.
“Second periods are something we need to work on, but other than that, we’ve been pretty good,” said Wareham. “We took two penalties that are 200 feet away from the net, that is tough to kill them off and they got some momentum and we just got back on our heels, but we responded in the third.”
The Generals opened their season on the road in Wilcox on Saturday against the Notre Dame Hounds and won 4-2. Wilson finished with a goal and an assist, as did Trey Tendler and Rykr Cole. Donovan Nuels added the other goal.
“I think the guys were feeling pretty good. Our first period was pretty good, our second period wasn’t so good and I thought the boys really clamped down in the third period and that really carried over to today (Sunday),” stated Wareham of Saturday’s game.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
