The Cochrane Generals are hoping to even the HJHL south final series on Thursday night at home after losing to the Coaldale Copperheads on the road last night.

The vipers slithered their way to a 5-2 win, but Gens head coach Travis McMillan believes the team will rebound at home on Thursday night.

Coaldale held a 1-0 lead midway into the second when Chris Sambrook tied it. The second stanza ended with two more goals by the Copperheads only 46 seconds apart that eventually lead to their win.

Jordan Fisher scored from Sam Norris and Taylor Girard to make it a two-goal game until Coaldale scored an empty netter with eight seconds remaining.

Gens head coach Travis McMillan says the team came out flat in the first period last night.

“We were not moving as fast as we should have been,” says McMillan. “Our speed is one of our biggest attributes and we didn’t utilize it last night.”

Coaldale’s two quick second period goals came after the Gens were pushing hard for 10 minutes in the Copperheads’ end, says McMillan.

“We came off of a high and had to regroup a little and they capitalized on it. Unfortunately, we did not play our best hockey last night and it showed on the scoreboard.”

While there are some positives to take out of the game, there's room for improvement, he believes.

“I took a look at the video last night on the way home on the bus and we have a lot of stuff we need to correct. Needless to say, that will be corrected for tomorrow night.”

“We should be OK on Thursday. I anticipated the boys will be a little frustrated from last night.”

The puck drops Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Cochrane Arena. Game Four is here on Sunday, Mar. 9 at 5:30 p.m.

There’s a tight timeline for the best-of-seven series. Potentially, the teams could be playing seven games in 13 days, basically a game every other day.

Elsewhere in the HJHL,  the Airdrie Techmation Thunder won the north final opener against the Mountainview Colts, 6-1. Game Two in that series goes tonight in Airdrie.

The Thunder have been a scoring machine all season with the top five scorers in the league, including two 50-goal scorers, Jordan McConnell and Rylan Plante-Crough.