Teluscup thu

Hockey is a game of bounces and on Thursday night, those bounces just didn’t go the Moose Jaw Generals’ way.

Down one with just over a minute to go in the game, Shane Collins let a shot go from the point, it beat Prince Albert goalie Lane Michasiw, but not the post.  That moment exemplified the story of the game for the Generals as the same play in the second period led to the game winning goal for the Mintos.

Prince Albert ended up picking up a 2-0 win over Moose Jaw to tie the Telus Cup-record unbeaten streak at 18 games and clinch them a spot in Saturday’s semifinal, joining the Toronto Young Nationals.

“You look back and we could very easily be 3-1 and probably deserve to be 3-1, we’ve outshot every team, we’ve outplayed everyone,” said Ray Wareham, head coach of the Generals.  “Our kids are battling, but we just can’t find the back of the net right now.”

The Generals have scored seven goals over four games at the Telus Cup and have yet to see their top two lines be at the level that they need to be to have success.

“I don’t know what’s happened, they just can’t find their game,” said Wareham.  “(Jared) Dmytriw’s line and (Josh) Beaudry’s lines are best lines and our other two lines have disappeared, so it’s frustrating.”

Wareham said they’re looking at shaking up those lines after the game to try and get a spark for their round robin finale on Friday against the Chateauguay Grenadiers.

The mood was definitely down for the Generals after the loss, but the team knows they still have a life line left going into the final day of round robin play.

“This is a tough pill to swallow, PA’s been a rival all season and we needed the win,” said goalie Grant Naherniak, who made 23 saves in the loss.  “We’ll just have to bounce back tomorrow.”

After a lacklustre first period for both teams, the Generals came out and controlled the play during the second period.  They had a number of chances to open the scoring, but couldn’t find the goal.

With all the momentum on Moose Jaw’s side, the Mintos would be the ones that got on the board first as Loch Morrison’s point shot found its way past a screened Naherniak with just 12 seconds remaining in the middle frame.

“We regrouped as a team after we scored that goal,” said Morrison.  “The boys worked really hard and we were able to get the W.”

Lance Yaremchuk sealed the win for the Mintos, scoring into an empty net with 49 second to go.

Much of the credit for the win will fall on Michasiw as the Mintos netminder stopped all 30 shots he faced for the shutout win.

“All season long we’ve had the top two goalies in the league and they just keep us in it,” said Dakota Boutin.  “Our defence is good at cleaning out the pucks and bodies in front of the net, but ultimately our goalies are clutch.”

The win was extra sweet for Boutin, who was facing his former team for the first time at Mosaic Place since parting ways.  He couldn’t describe the feeling of coming away with a win.

“That was pretty sweet,” he said.  “I tried to keep my emotions as low as I could.  I obviously ramped up the physical play a bit, but there wasn’t much chirping.”

Prince Albert will get to saviour this win for a couple of days with their semifinal spot locked up.  They return to the ice against the Halifax McDonalds on Friday at 1:00pm.

The Generals will need to win and get some help if they hope to keep their season going.  They take on the Chateauguay Grenadiers at 4:30pm on Friday in a must win game.  A Generals win combined with either a Halifax or Okanagan loss will send them to the semifinals.

“We need a favour tomorrow, but if everybody would have told us that we were going into the last day and we had a shot to move to Saturday we would have took it,” said Wareham.  “We’ve played good hockey this week, I’m proud of the kids for their effort, but we just haven’t been rewarded and that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Thursday started with an upset by Halifax as they scored four unanswered in the third period to beat Okanagan 5-4, while Toronto won their third straight game, beating Chateauguay 3-1.