Rob Michetti got his first shutout as a Cochrane General on Saturday night in the team’s 8-0 win over the newly-formed Lomond Lakers.

The Gens limited the Lakers to just one shot in the opening period and grabbed a three-goal lead, then doubled it to 6-0 after two before notching two in the third.

In all, the Lakers got only 14 shots on Michetti while the Gens mustered 50.

“We’ve been doing a very good job on maintaining puck control through the neutral zone and through the offensive zone,” says McMillan, “so it’s a good thing, it’s a positive thing, and we can build off of it.”

McMillan believes it was important for Michetti to get his first win between the pipes after being bombarded earlier in the season by the Airdrie Techmation Thunder. He’s been spending a lot of the time with the Drumheller Dragons, who have been plagued with goalie injuries, and recently got his first win with the AJHL club.

“We felt it was necessary to get Rob in there and get him moving and get him going after that Airdrie game that he had a couple weeks back. From what I saw his performance was solid and he was square. He is what we anticipated him to be.”

The Gens spread around the scoring. River Ross scored a pair while Ryan Davis, Jordan Fisher, Chris Sambrook, Sam Norris, Ben Davison and Brandon Aab all scored singles.

Davis and Sambrook both made it a three-point night with a pair of assists. Scott Shugg, Harry Osler and Caden Chudleigh all had two assists and Caylin Wildman and Takuro Okada each had one.

The Lakers are new to the Heritage Junior Hockey League and just getting their legs. It was the Gens first look at them and McMillan says they play a grinding style.

“They got a little edgy in the third period and our guys kind of battled through a lot of hits and messy plays, which is very good to see.”

The Gens get a second look at them next Sunday at the Cochrane Arena.

Before then, Gens host the Blackfalds Wranglers in their first matchup of the season this coming Friday.

“That’s another grinding team but they also have the ability to score some big goals,” says McMillan.

The Wranglers have had a slow start with only three wins and two overtime losses in nine games.

Puck drops at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 2 at the Cochrane Arena.

Nine games into the season the Gens have a 5-4 record. They are clumped together with a bunch of teams in the south but have games in hand on all of them.

The Okotoks Bisons and Coaldale Copperheads are at the top in the south while in the north division the Airdrie Thunder keep racking up the wins and remain undefeated in their first 14 games.