The Save–On–Foods Oceanside Generals didn’t start the new year the way they wanted with a loss in their first game back, against the Campbell River Storm.
With 15 games remaining on their schedule, the Generals wanted to start on the right foot against the North Division-leading Storm Saturday night.
But when the final buzzer sounded, the Generals were on the losing end of a 6-3 final after the hometown team struggled through the first two periods.
“We didn’t play well at all,” captain Cam Nickerson said. “You could tell there were a few guys that didn’t get out for a run over the Christmas break, which is too bad.”
“We did the best we could; I thought we played this team a little tougher than we have this season at home. We’ve just got to dig deep; guys have to want it more here.”
“There’s no life on our bench,” Nickerson continued. “When we get a good hit or Henwood makes a good save, we’ve got one or two guys on the bench making noise. When Campbell River does something like keep the puck in the offensive zone, their entire bench is up and excited.”
“You can’t teach that to players. That’s on them, they have to want to get excited for what we’re doing and they have to want to play.”
The Oceanside Generals had their struggles on the defensive end from the get go, with goaltender Matt Henwood taking on 37 shots, stopping 31 of them.
“We weren’t very good,” head coach Brad Knight said. “I thought our defence(men) weren’t very good. We really needed them to step up and get going for us right away and they didn’t.”
“I thought Matt Henwood was good in net. He made some good saves early on for us that kept us in the game. It’s the same story though, we just don’t have guys who know how to compete hard enough and that’s all there is to it. They need to be better and they need to want to win, there’s nothing else you can say there.”
The loss makes it seven in a row this season to the Campbell River Storm, who continue to put distance between themselves and the rest of the north division.
With 14 games left to play in the season, the Generals are six points behind the Saanich Braves for eighth place in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League (VIJHL).
They are 10 points behind the Comox Valley Glacier Kings for third in the north division.
It’s that third place spot in the North Division the Generals would like to compete for before the season is over, but they know it’s going to be a tough task.
“We just need to play together as a team,” forward Mathieu Jallabert said. “We always have a few guys each game that don’t show up and it’s tough because it changes from game to game.”
“We’ve been trying to eliminate that for a while and it’s still happening, so we’ve just got to get on the same page, communicate with each other and keep things simple,” Jallabert said.
“We need to eliminate the selfishness and play as a team.”
