PHOTO COURTESY JUSTIN COSTEA/COSTEA IMAGES - Medicine Hat's Joshua Schafer battles Cochrane's Caden Chudleigh in a regular season game at the Kinplex. The Cubs and Generals begin their second-round series this weekend.
You could look at the second-round matchup between the Medicine Hat Cubs and Cochrane Generals as pitting an up-and-coming team against a team led by up-and-comers.
In one corner, the provincial junior B hockey championship host Cubs are looking to take the next step in their evolution. They’ve gone from almost folding a few years ago to winning a round last year, and now they’re ready for the big-time.
They also don’t want too long of a layoff before hosting provincials in April.
In the other end, the Generals are a perennial playoff stalwart, going to the finals in 2016 and 2017 but surprisingly led offensively by a pair of rookies this season. Dean Olenyk and Patrick Forde combined for 111 points in the regular season as their team earned a first-round bye ahead of the Cubs in the Heritage league’s South Conference.
“Olenyk, he had to adapt his game for sure, it was a learning experience for him,” said Generals coach Kurtis Jones a day before Saturday’s series opener at the Cochrane Arena. “Forde’s a junior A player, he just decided to go to school and focus on his school and play hockey.”
Olenyk finished tied for fourth in league scoring with Medicine Hat’s Mason Fischer. His 27 goals and 32 assists in 36 games did make him the rookie scoring leader, however, and Forde was second (and 13th overall) with 52 points.
Fischer, one of the team’s overagers, had 29 goals and 30 assists in 34 games for the Cubs.
“Keys I think will be for us playing physical but disciplined,” said Cubs GM Dave Kowalchuk via text message Friday. “Shutting down that Olenyk Forde line. Having a quick start in Cochrane in Game 1 and setting our tone will be crucial.”
Cochrane is about far more than its top line, however, and the Cubs will need to be ready.
“Our 21’s, our guys lean on them for sure,” said Jones. “(Brandon) Aab’s been in the league for five years, he’s a great leader.”
Medicine Hat hosts Game 2 Sunday, 6 p.m. at the Kinplex, then the series takes a three-day break before going back to Cochrane next Thursday, in the Hat Friday and continuing the back-and-forth home dates the rest of the way.
Jones said he’s never been in a 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 series before, and implied it lessens the home ice advantage his team earned.
“Out of the seven or eight days we had off we still practised five times,” he said of the benefit of the bye. “Home ice doesn’t mean nothing if you’re going back 1-1-1-1.”
Regardless, the Generals beat Medicine Hat twice on the last weekend of the regular season to get Game 7 on their ice if needed. They did so with Logan Leroux in place of regular Cubs starting goalie Dawsen Savage; Kowalchuk said Savage “probably won’t see action quite yet” even though the team did announce he’s off the injured list. With a 2.65 goals against average and .919 save percentage, Jones said Savage is probably the best netminder in the league.
Captain Tavin Stadnicki also remains out to start the second round, though he’s “close to returning.”
The Generals will go with 20-year-old Erik Garber in net. Garber has a 2.84 goals against average and .911 save percentage this season.
Last year Cochrane was eliminated in the South Division finals by Coaldale. This year Coaldale was upset in the first round by High River, which plays Okotoks in the other South semifinal series. Airdrie hosts Mountainview and Red Deer faces Sylvan Lake in the North Division semifinals.
Cochrane beat Medicine Hat in a three-game series in 2018, though much has changed since then.
“They’re a pretty good team,” said Jones. “They play a hard game. They’re a quick, fast hockey team and they’re good.”
