The Moose Jaw Generals remained undefeated in 2013 after picking up a pair wins over the Tisdale Trojans this weekend. Ben Duperreault capped off the two-win weekend by scoring a overtime winning goal with one second left on Sunday in a 4-3 win at Mosaic Place.
“It kind of just ended up on my stick and I went hard to the net, it's a great feeling to get the win and keep our streak going,” said Duperreault after scoring the winner. “It was a nice play by Rhett (Gardner) to get it to the net... I snuck it in I think in the last, dying seconds.”
It was Duperreault's second goal of the game and it gave the Generals their seventh straight win, while also moving them into a three-way tie for second with the Saskatoon Contacts and Regina Pat Canadians.“We talked about it before the game is, we wanted to put ourselves in a position at Christmas time, winning those four and we've come back here and been pretty good,” said head coach Ray Wareham. “We want to make that push, we got four out of this weekend and it puts us in a pretty good spot. We're in a position now where we can actually make a run for it.”
Sunday's win was a bit different than Saturday's after the Generals cruised to a 7-2 win on Saturday against the Trojans, the visitors put up a much better fight on Sunday, leading for most of the game.
“It's a nice way to win, but that's not the way we want to go about it,” stated Wareham after the game. “We need to be consistent playing good hockey. Happy that we found a way to get it done, but just have to realized that we have to be better.”
Moose Jaw was controlling every aspect of the game in the first period, outshooting Tisdale, 11-2, but it was the Trojans who were able to take the early lead. Wyatt Hinson tapped in a cross ice pass on a 3-on-2 rush to give the Trojans the 1-0 lead. The Generals were 0-for-3 on the power play in the first period as they struggled to get much going with the man advantage and trailed heading into the break.
The play continued to be down in the Tisdale end early in the second period and the Generals finally broke through at the 11:11 mark of the second. Trey Tendler made a nice move to get around the defender and drove to the net, beating Nik Amundrud.
Tisdale continued to work hard and took control of the game in the second period as they took a 2-1 lead heading into the third. They got the lead thanks to a great individual play by Tristen Elder. Moose Jaw couldn't get the puck out of their end and Elder snapped the puck past Ryland Pashovitz after a nice toe drag.
With a power play to start the third, the Trojans extended their lead on a shot by Brandon Arnold with just 1:47 gone in the final frame.
The Generals cut the lead to 3-2 just past the 5:00 mark on a bad angle shot by Duperreault that found it's way past Amundrud. Then with the net empty and time winding down, Dakota Boutin found the puck for the Generals and kept their winning streak alive, scoring with 54 seconds to go to send the game to overtime.
The Trojans came out strong to start the extra frame looking, but couldn't get a quality scoring chance. Tisdale called a timeout prior to a face off in the Generals' zone with 13 seconds left in the game. The Generals won the face off and quickly moved the puck up ice where Duperreault scored his second of the game as lifted the puck over the Trojans' goalie just as time expired for the 4-3 win.
“I thought we fought back pretty hard, there was some bounces that didn't go our way, and I thought we could have got more shots, but in the end we toughed it out, got our shots on net and won the game,” said Duperreault.
It was a big weekend for the Wilcox native as he made his WHL debut with the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday night and then scored three goals in the Generals' two wins on the weekend. “It's a great feeling. I had a great weekend this weekend,” added Duperreault.
Pashovitz made 22 saves for his 13th win of the season, while Amundrud faced 36 shots in total at the other end. The Generals 0-for-6 on the power play as they continue to have their problems with man advantage; Tisdale was 1-for-3.
The Generals have another busy week ahead as they will head to Yorkton on Wednesday and then play a home-and-home with the Notre Dame Argos on the weekend. Moose Jaw's portion of the home-and-home on Saturday will be played in Assiniboia as part of SaskEnergy Hockey Weekend.
Mon, May 6, 1:00 PM
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