The coaching staff of the Cochrane Generals is impressed with the performance of their prospects in a Saturday night matchup against the Okotoks Bisons.

Strictly playing recruits, the Gens held the Bisons to a 5-5 tie by the end of regulation. Overtime solved nothing, and the Bisons won a shoot-out to claim the win.

It was pretty much a case of the Gens and Bisons continued from where they left off in the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) south final in March 2020, with one major difference.

Gens assistant coach Eric Krigel says the Bisons were playing what appeared to be close to its starting lineup and even had a couple of Junior 'A' teams in the mix to give them some ice time before they report to camp.

He says the upcoming Heritage Junior Hockey League season looks promising for the local team.

"This is the most confident I've been at the beginning of the season to be able to say that with this group, nothing is holding us back from getting a championship this year," says Krigel. "I'm very confident we'll do quite well."

He says Saturday night's game was fast-paced and reflected the enthusiasm for the return to play.

"The guys were pumped and ready to go. I'm mean extremely pumped and ready to go having not played hockey in so long. Both sides stepped onto the ice on Saturday, and it looked like they gave it their all." 

Now the Gens are faced with the challenge of cutting a few of their 21-year-old players and some of their new prospects to scale back to a roster of 25 players.

"We're going to have trouble letting anybody go because everybody out there is a good hockey player. I know it's a good problem to have, but we're going to be letting go of some pretty good players."

The Gens are in Okotoks Tuesday and Wednesday, then return to the Cochrane Arena to wrap up the pre-season series on Friday night. The Gens are playing their veterans tomorrow night.

The Gens open their regular season at home on Sept. 11 against the Kainai Braves.