Looking to continue their fine play since the holiday break, the Save-On-Foods Oceanside Generals are looking to build on their win last weekend.
It all starts tomorrow night with the Gens back in Campbell River to take on the Storm, who beat the Gens last week 6-3. Penalties caused four straight goals for the Storm the last time these teams met, which the Gens will be wary of.
“That’s what cost us the game last time against these guys,” head coach Rob Gaudreault said. “I’ve been saying it for a while, and when it happens for us it’s true, that we’re a good, competitive team playing at even strength. Our numbers show it. But when we’re down a man or two, that’s what kills our momentum.”
Having struggled with the penalty kill all season, it’s the little details when it comes to taking those penalties. Looking for an answer to the problem, Gaudreault is going to take a different approach.
“I’m going to have a one on one meeting with each player,” he said. “We need to find out how to make sure we can keep our heads out there and I think that sitting down with each player will help that out. Every person is so different but when you play together as a team, you need to be thinking together as a team.”
The last time these two teams met, it was a 6-3 final in favour of the Storm, but if you take the four power play goals out of their last meet, the score would have been 3-2 for the Gens.
“We’re working hard each game and it’s showing,” forward Travis Flug said. “I think that if we can minimize the penalties we take and improve more when we’re on the power play, we can be a much stronger team. Five on five, we feel like we can play with anyone right now, so we just need more of that.”
Saturday night the Gens return home to take on the Peninsula Panthers, a team they’ve beat once and lost to once.
It was a big 10-3 win for the Gens way back in September. Fast-forward four months later, the teams will meet again with different faces on the ice.
“Getting that W last week was great, felt really good,” forward Mathieu Jallabert said. “We’re building as a team, our new players that have come in are fitting in well. It’s been really good though, it’s a lot of fun playing with these guys and we’re all having a good time playing together.”