The Oceanside Generals midget rep hockey team kicked off its 2016 pre-season with a 4-1 road win at Powell River that coach Clinton Sutherland called “a good game.”
He wasn’t using the same language Saturday, but at least the midgets were still unbeaten after rallying from behind with two late goals to top Sooke 4-3 at Oceanside Place Arena.
“That wasn’t us out there,” Sutherland said after Duncan Cairns scored the game-winner with 3:08 left to play. “That was sloppy.”
The game was one in a five-game series of tiering contests used by the Vancouver Island Hockey League to determine which division each program will compete in during the coming season.
After an impressive debut in Powell River the previous Sunday, however, the Generals got off to a ragged start Saturday and played unevenly in what turned into a see-saw game.
Oceanside Generals midget Duncan Cairns, centre, first a shot on net past the defence of Sooke’s Ky Berger during their rep hockey tiering game Saturday at Oceanside Place Arena. — Image credit: J.R. Rardon/NEWS Staff
The midgets led twice, both courtesy of Cairns. His second-period goal staked the Generals to a 2-1 edge after the team trailed 1-0 at the first intermission.
Sooke then closed the second period with a tying goal and got a go-ahead score early in the third that held up for more than 12 minutes.
Finally, with 5:07 remaining, Jimmy Schworan pounced on the rebound of Michael Stewart’s shot from the opposite circle, depositing the puck in the net to make it 3-3.
The Generals continued to carry the play and were rewarded when Cairns powered past a defender at the high slot and lifted a wrist shot from the edge of the circle for the winner.
Stewart, who had the team’s first goal early in the second, added a second assist on the winning goal.
