It was a big night for the Save-On-Foods Oceanside Generals as they snapped their nine-game losing streak against the Westshore Wolves Saturday.
Brodie Smith gave the Generals their third win of the season with his overtime goal.
The Generals came hard out of the gate and took it to the Wolves all night as they looked strong in all facets of their game. Finding themselves short handed early in the first period, the Generals worked hard on the penalty kill and that was a sign of things to come for the rest of the night.
“Our power play was really clicking and we kinda simplified what we were doing out there. I thought everyone was working hard on the PK and it helps having good goaltending back there, too. Evgeuni was great in net and made us look good on the penalty kill tonight. We’re starting to get a feel for who fits where on the power play and I can only see it getting better for us,” coach Dan Lemmon said of his team’s specialty units.
The Generals had a huge game from Makarski and were sparked on offense from Nate Fitzpatrick, who notched two goals and a helper on the game winner in OT.
Coach Lemmon had nothing but praise for Fitzpatrick.
“He’s a dynamic player and he could be an all-star in this league and I think he showed that tonight. We’re looking forward to him being more consistent like he was for us here tonight.”
Fitzpatrick opened up the scoring when he let a wrist shot go from just inside the face-off dot and it beat Wolves goalie Tyrus Sleightholme top shelf on the glove side. Evgeuni Makarski was tested often in the first but stood his ground and helped the Generals carry the 1-0 lead into the second period.
Westshore tied it up just three minutes into the second period, but the Generals took control of the game back and had some good chances with their play through the rest of the second period, out-shooting Westshore 15-9 in the frame. The Gens had back-to-back, five-on-three, power-play chances but weren’t able to capitalize on either of them. However, that didn’t slow them down heading into the third period.
Fitzpatrick gave the Gens a 2-1 lead when he put one home on the power play, which looked good all game for the home side. Just two short minutes after that it was the Wolves who tied it up at two apiece on a nice passing play that saw Tyler Smith put it past Makarski. Late in the third, Makarski made up for it with a huge save on a breakaway to keep the game tied at two with just under two minutes left to play.
So it was off to overtime and it was back and forth between the two teams with Makarski making another key save to keep it tied. Smith, one of only two Gens botn in 1997, potted the game winner off a beauty feed from Fitzpatrick to win it with 38 seconds remaining in the first overtime period.
