The High River Flyers are truly in playoff form after their performance last night.

Despite the 7-6 loss to the Cochrane Generals, the Flyers are showing their stuff off to the top teams proving they have the ability to compete.

As for the Loss to the Generals, the Flyers battled hard against their opponent however they received no favours from the officiating throughout the night.

The first period was relatively uneventful, an early penalty to the Generals helped build some momentum for the Flyers and pushed them towards an early goal for Flyers forward Liam Bollivar, this would be Bollivars first goal as a Flyer this season however he's played two previous seasons in the blue and orange.

The period would remain at 1-0 with tons of great chances and huge stops from Flyers goaltender Max Johnston.

Johnston showed his team and the fans his ability as a number 1 goalie making massive stops to help keep his team in it.

He would stop all 14 of the shots he faced in the first with most being solid scoring opportunities for the Generals.

In the second period, Flyers forward Conner Taylor would take an early period elbowing penalty just 1 minute in putting his team on the penalty kill against a dangerous Generals power play.

The Generals would make no mistake finding the back of the net to equalize the game at 1-1.

The Flyers didn't wait long before answering back scoring just a minute later, Michael McTighe with a nice pass from Layne Sniher would find his 16th of the season to take a 2-1 lead. 

Jake Snashall would add another to the board once again from Sniher to take a 3-1 lead.

The Flyers were buzzing looking to add more when disaster struck, Sean Burns would get called for a hooking call that would put the Generals back on their power play. 

Once again the Generals found the net to move to 3-2.

The Flyers would respond with another goal to take a 4-2 lead, this time Sniher himself would find the net with help from Snashall and Josh Russo.

More penalty troubles for the Flyers as Joshua Fleck would head off on a slashing call, the Generals would once again bury the power play goal to move the score to 4-3.

More battling would ensue as the Flyers found another leading goal to take a 5-3 lead, Russo on his 17th of the year would push the Flyers to a two goal lead.

This is where the game got out of control.

A hit from behind on Flyer Jimmy Bantugan would go uncalled sparking a reaction from the Flyers bench, the crowd, and line-mate Brandt Black, Black took exception to the hit and stepped in to defend his teammate roughing up the Generals offender and throwing some punches along the way.

Amazingly Black would receive the only penalty on the play, a 2 minute roughing call and a 10 minute misconduct that would be served by Michael McTighe as Black went to the room.

This put the generals once again on the power play and as history tends to repeat itself they scored to move to 5-4.

The period wasn't over there as Bantugan once again took a cheap hit this time a late open-ice hit sending him to the ground momentarily, as any teammate would do Michael McTighe stepped in to have a word with the Generals player grabbing and head locking him before being separated by the refs.

Once again the Flyers would receive the only penalty on the play, McTighe would head off for 2 minutes on a roughing call. 

Thanks to solid defense and a huge pair of stops by Max Johnston the Flyers would keep the score at 5-4 going into the final period.

The third period saw more of the second with the Flyers starting out strong even grabbing an insurance goal to take a 6-4 lead thanks to Jimmy Bantugan's 11th.

The Generals would catch more of a break as a boarding call would be missed resulting in Conner Taylor needing to be helped off the ice.

The Flyers didn't receive any more favours for the remainder of the game as the calls would continue to be missed from icing to hits from behind it seemed the game was beyond control.

The Generals would get two more throughout the third before a battle in the final minutes in the Generals zone gave the Flyers a late game chance to seal the deal.

Banging away at the puck in the crease a Generals player would jump onto the loose puck resulting in a quick whistle stopping play before the Flyers had any chance to bury the rebound.

The Generals would win the ensuing faceoff and send the puck down the length of the ice in what would have resulted in an icing, however, the call was waved off in the last seconds as the Generals would send a centering pass that would eventually beat Johnston with just 30 seconds left in the period.

The Flyers would fall 7-6 in a heart breaking loss.

While the loss is painful the underlying showing is that the Flyers can play with the best, the Generals are a full 10 wins ahead of the Flyers (as of this win) and the Flyers showed they can play and lead against the top teams.

The Flyers have a tough schedule ahead of them with two meetings with the Okotoks Bisons, a date in the snakepit in Red Deer against the Vipers and a pair of meetings with the Lomond Lakers.

 

Final Score

High River Flyers - 6 (Bollivar, McTighe, Snashall, Sniher, Russo, Bantugan)

Concrane Generals - 7 (Fisher, Forde, Stewart, Sambrook, Olenyk, Girard, Olenyk)

Total Shots

High River Flyers, 9 - 12 - 12 - 33

Cochrane Generals, 14 - 14 - 14 - 42 

Three Stars

First Star - High River Flyers - Layne Sniher, 1 goal and 5 assists

Second Star - Cochrane Generals - Jordan Marks, 0 goals 4 assists

Third Star - Cochrane Generals - Dean Olenyk, 2 goals 1 assist including game winning goal