The Lacombe Generals gave up two quick goals in the third period Friday and couldn’t recover in a 7-4 loss to the Stony Plain Eagles in game three of the Alberta Senior AAA hockey provincial final.
With the game tied at three in the third, Stony Plain scored twice in just 30 seconds and added a power play goal to sink Lacombe.
“I thought we had spurts of effort but at the end of the day I think they just wanted it more than we did,” Generals head coach Curtis Austring said.
“We’ve got a good opportunity to get back at it, there’s no rest, there’s no time to dwell on it, just get back at it.”
Bryce Williamson, Richard Kelly and Nik Yaremchuk had the Eagles’ goals and Blair Hennes also added a short handed marker in the final frame.
“We were chasing the game and I think we gave them some opportunities and they capitalized and we just lost our focus there at the end,” Austring said.
The Eagles also jumped out of the gate on fire with back-to-back goals before the Generals responded with three of their own to close out the first period.
Evan Oberg buried a cross-ice feed on the power play for Lacombe and Alex Macleod took a breakaway pass out of the penalty box and put it five hole past Vincent Marozzi. With just ten seconds left in the period Ryan Kinasewich gave the Generals a 3-2 lead on a one-timer top corner.
Stony Plain tied the game in the second period and Eric Galbraith had the only Generals goal of the third.
Kraymer Barnstable had 31 saves in the Lacombe net, but had a crucial giveaway that turned into the Eagles seventh goal.
“He generally makes good decisions, every once in a while there’s one of those. We need to be in better spots for better support, but at the end of the day it’s not why we lost,” Austring added.
It’s a quick turnaround tonight as the two teams square off in Stony Plain with puck drop set for 7:30 p.m.
“We have to bring the compete level up. I expect us to be better,” the Generals head coach said.
”On the second night you generally feel better on the edges. I hope we come with a little bit of focused aggression and are ready to compete hard.”