GALLERY: Gens hold on to lone possession of fourth

Any chance of the Strathmore Wheatland Kings forcing overtime ended with a penalty with less than four seconds remaining in play.

Up until then, though, it was anyone's game with fourth place on the line heading into the Christmas break. A win by the Kings would see the two teams deadlocked in fourth, although the Gens have two games in hand.

The Gens took a 3-1 lead after one before the Kings Philip Raycroft tightened it to a one-goal game in a penalty-filled second.

The Gens played a modified trap in the third to limited play in their action to secure the win.

"We wanted to shut them down," says Gens associate coach Erik Krigel. "We just wanted to hem them in their zone, get the puck deep, go to work and just don't let them into our zone and try to hold them up at the blueline."

Brendan Thubron had a goal and assist and named first star of the game.

Defenceman Brendan Thubron was named first star, opening the scoring for the Gens and assisting on Christopher Ugbaja's game winner.

The Gens veteran and assistant captain says a couple of guys needed to pick up their pace a bit, but overall, it was a good team win.

"I thought I had a good game. I was getting good bounces, good support behind me. I thought everybody was in a good mood prior to the game so that definitely helped to bring up the morale of the team and everything was just clicking today."

Drew Cadenhead got a win in his first start with the Gens.

Newly-recruited goalie Drew Cadenhead turned away 21 of the 23 shots in faced, and also was named a star of the game. He started four games for the Okotoks Bisons before being recruited by the Gens.

The game also marked the return of Caden Stephenson after being sidelined by an injury.

Caden Stephenson was back in the lineup this weekend after recovering from an injury.

Zach Wilkins scored the Gens other goal from Daniel O'Handley and Stephen Jones.

Friday night, the Okotoks Bisons shut out the Gens, 3-0. The Bisons scored three goals, one in each period and two of them on the powerplay. The Gens mustered just 14 shots on goal to the Bisons 33.

The Gens don't see any action until a Jan. 5-6 road trip with stops in High River and Okotoks. We don't here them here until Jan. 12 when they host the struggling Ponoka Stampeders.

The Gens are 16-6-2 heading into 2024.

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