The Moose Jaw Generals closed out their preseason schedule over the weekend with a win and a loss against the Notre Dame Hounds.

The young team has been making progress as they get ready for their season opening date with the Saskatoon Contacts on Saturday in the Bridge City.

They’re still looking to find some consistency in their game however after picking up a 7-3 win over Notre Dame in Wilcox this past Saturday and then losing 3-1 to the Hounds at Mosaic Place on Sunday.

“We did a lot of good things, we weren’t without our mistakes, but we worked hard from start to finish,” said head coach Ray Wareham.  “Overall, very happy with some of the progress that we’ve made.”

The Generals are a much younger team than they were a year ago when they hosted the Telus Cup and have been working through their growing pains during the preseason.  It didn’t look pretty start off, but the team has started to round into shape.

“Two weeks ago we were thinking it might be a long start, but we’ve made some significant strides over the past couple of weeks,” said Wareham.  “This week in particular, we just really hammered some stuff and tried to get a lot more structured.”

The team has been working to implement their systems with Wareham trying to get the players to focus on the defensive end of the ice and playing without the puck.

He’s been happy with how they’ve grown in those areas in a short time span.

“This weekend, the kids executed pretty good,” Wareham said.  “For the most part, we were executing what we were wanted to do and we were trying things that we’ve worked on in practice, so that’s encouraging.”

During Saturday’s high scoring win, the Generals were led by second-year forward Branden Klatt, who posted two goals and five points in the 7-3 win.  That’s big for him and the team as Klatt will be leaned on more offensively this year as one of the few returning players.

“Branden’s going to be a big part of our team this year and it was nice to see him get going,” said Wareham.  “He’s a big kid that can go to the net hard if he desires to do so, so it was encouraging to see.”

With a week of practice to go before the opening of the regular season, Wareham said he wants to see the team focus on making quicker decisions.

“We’re young and we’re inexperienced and our decision making process sometimes is a little scary,” he said.  “When they came at us pretty hard and put some pressure on us, we weren’t able to make some plays.  Otherwise, they just need to keep working hard and keep learning and we’re going to be fine.”

The Generals open the regular season on Saturday night in Saskatoon against the Contacts.  They’ll be in Wilcox against the Notre Dame Hounds next Thursday and their home opener isn’t until Oct. 4 when the Contacts make a trip down to Mosaic Place.