The Save-On-Foods Oceanside Generals played two competitive games last week, taking losses to both the Victoria Cougars and Comox Valley Glacier Kings.
Saturday night saw the Generals take on the Glacier Kings in a spirited game. Gen’s captain Gibson Doney opened the scoring a little under three minutes in but after that it was all Glacier Kings, who would go on the win 9-5.
“Penalties got us down and being short handed got to us” forward Chase Gaudreault said. “When you only have three lines, that’s going to catch up to you eventually and it caught us this game. We need to focus more in practice and take things day by day. I think if we can take it a little more serious, things will start to turn around for us.”
When the buzzer sounded to end of the game, there were 28 penalties handed out between the two teams, with Doney and forward Cameron Nickerson each earning a game misconduct for fighting early in the second period. Jacob Longmore was also given a match penalty in the second period for checking from behind.
“It was a little tough out there,” forward Travis Flug said. “We didn’t get the good jump in the first period like we did against Victoria and with a team like Comox, when you give them chances like we did, they’re going to take advantage of that.”
Both Jarrett Weme, who missed Saturday’s game, and Chandler Bruyckere, who missed both games, are dealing with shoulder injuries. Weme re-aggravated his injury on Thursday night while Bruyckere went under the knife on Saturday evening to try and speed up his recovery process.
“You never like to have guys out of the lineup like that,” head coach Rob Gaudreault said. “Weme tried to play through it but it’s just causing him too much pain right now, so we’re hoping to see him recover with some time off the ice. Chandler went under the knife before our game on Saturday, so we obviously wish him the best in his recovery as well.”
The Gens lost 6-1 to the Victoria Cougars last Thursday, leaving the Gens winless on the season for road games. It wasn’t for lack of effort though; as coach Gaudreault felt it was the best “two and one-thirds periods” the team had played all season.
“We played them well for those first two periods,” Gaudreault said. “After about the five minute mark in the third, we lost our legs and that’s when the wheels fell off. The kids played a heck of a game though against a really good team and that’s something that they should be proud of.”
There are three games remaining for the Gens before the Christmas break. Thursday they are in Nanaimo to take on the Buccaneers. Saturday they return home for a 7:30 p.m. start against the Campbell River Storm and Monday (Dec. 22) they travel to Comox to take on the Glacier Kings.