Gens fight to avoid winless weekend

2015-02-24

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

It was a long weekend for the Oshawa Generals, battling through three games in three days.

Despite dropping a 3-2 shootout decision to the London Knights on Feb. 20 and a 5-4 home loss to the Kingston Frontenacs the following night, the Gens battled to clinch the Eastern Division title with a 5-3 win over the Ottawa 67s on Sunday. It is the second year in a row Oshawa has accomplished the feat.

For head coach DJ Smith, it was the special teams that really let the team down throughout the trio of games.

“Our special teams was the big issue this weekend. Our penalty kill dropped off and our power play was no good at all, so that’s certainly what we have to work on,” Smith said. “We have to get more chances. When teams take penalties, we have to make them pay and this weekend we didn’t do that and that almost cost us all the games.”

Smith said getting the routes into the offensive zone more streamlined and working on puck control on the power play are points of order for the coming week, which will hopefully get the team back to where they were earlier in the season.

Currently, the Gens’ power play sits at fourth in the league at 25.9 per cent. The penalty kill leads the league with a 85.3 per cent success rate.

“We walked in with so much ease at the start of the year and we seemed to have lost that,” Smith said.

The Generals also faced troubles with the loss of star goaltender Kenny Appleby, who was pulled from Saturday’s game after letting in a trio of goals in the first period.

Appleby also missed Sunday’s game with the flu. Backup goalie Jeremy Brodeur took over between the pipes.

“Well, he wasn’t feeling good going into it and he just didn’t look like himself,” Smith said of the decision to pull Appleby in the game against Kingston. “Certainly, a couple went in that were outside his character.”

Smith says the young Brodeur has come through for the team when they need him.

“He’s been good, he made some big saves…that’s tough to go in, he hasn’t played a lot and I’ll look to get him more minutes down the stretch here.”

With the playoffs looming and the final game of the regular season fast approaching on March 22, Smith says his main concern is ensuring his club is ready come playoff time.

The Generals remain atop the Ontario Hockey League standings with 93 points through 57 games. However, the Soo Greyhounds are on their heels currently sitting on 92 points after 58 games.

Oshawa kicks off yet another three-game weekend on Friday with the first of a home-and-home series with the Belleville Bulls. Puck drop is at 7:35 p.m. After a Saturday visit to Belleville, the Gens return home Sunday to take on the Peterborough Petes at 6:05 p.m.