With two exhibition games in the books, the Save-On-Foods Oceanside Generals are that much closer to kicking off their 2014-15 season.
The Generals played host to the Nanaimo Buccaneers last Wednesday evening, which saw a great crowd come out for their first glimpse at the potential team.
The Gens ended up on the losing end of a 5–2 score in front of the hometown fans.
Two days later, it was back at it for the Gens on Friday night as they travelled to Nanaimo to once again do battle with the Buccaneers, looking to split the home and home games (score not available at press time Friday).
Wednesday’s action marked the first official game behind the Gens bench for head coach Jason Johns, who was opposite his former team.
Happy to get the first one under his belt, Johns was very positive following the game and liked a lot of what he saw from his team.
“We had a great crowd out there, it’s nice to see that the community’s interested in what we’ve got on the ice,” Johns said. “I thought we played pretty good, we controlled the play a lot in the game and if we can capitalize on our chances, we’ll look pretty good.”
There were some different faces on the ice in Friday’s tilt between the two teams; Johns and the coaching staff are hoping to see as much as they can between the remaining exhibition games.
“We’re going to have some fresh bodies in the lineup,” Johns said. “It’s a real good chance for a lot of kids to get their feet wet at the Junior B level and we’re looking forward to seeing what they can do out there.”
Wednesday’s game marked the first of many for quite a few new faces looking to make the team, including U.S. born David Anderson, PJ Heger and Keanu Gallegos.
Anderson, a goaltender from Santa Clarita, California, spent a good amount of time between the pipes and was headed down to the Cowichan Valley Capitals junior A camp last weekend.
Heger, from Traverse City, Michigan, and Gallegos, from Colorado, were both pretty excited to be suiting up in a new city, (See more below).
The Gens now have two games left in exhibition play before they kick off their regular season on the road against the Nanaimo Buccaneers.
The regular season home opener goes Sept. 6 against the Campbell River Storm. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. with pre–game festivities an hour before the game.