SEVENTH HEAVEN?

A SEASON-LONG ROAD TRIP

They say seven is a lucky number. Some believe seven is the number that represents perfection and completion.

Even the Generals can relate to the number seven. From 1938 to 1944, the Generals won seven straight OHL championships. While on the topic of winning, the Generals have also won seven George Richardson Memorial Trophies in their history, from 1938-1940, 1942-1944, and again in 1966. More recently, Oshawa has finished seven of their last nine seasons with a winning record.

On the other side of things, the Generals have lost seven Memorial Cup tournaments – to go along with their five wins, don’t forget.

This season specifically, the number seven represents the length of their longest road trip of the year, seven games. Seven different opponents waited for the Generals bus to pull into their arenas for OHL hockey.

While the Gens played seven games on the road, we want you to play one game while reading the rest of this story. With stops in North Bay, Sudbury, Hamilton, Kitchener, Erie, Peterborough and Kingston, how many kilometers do you think were racked up over the last three weeks? We’ll reveal it at the end, but just think about it for now.

Starting in North Bay, the Generals arrived at the North Bay Memorial Gardens hot off the heels of a thrilling 5-4 overtime victory over the Mississauga Steelheads at home. The fun ended abruptly upon arrival in North Bay. The central division leaders made quick work of the Gens, scoring, you guessed it, seven goals.

While the Generals did come hot out of the gate going up 2-0 midway through the first, North Bay answered with three of their own. By the end of the second period, North Bay was off the races up 5-3.

Not the best start to a long road trip.

The very next night, Oshawa continued north to pay a visit to the Sudbury Wolves, a team much closer to them in the standings. On December 18th the two teams met for the first time of the season. If you catch the theme here, you’d know where we’re going with this. Sudbury won that game too, 7-1. In Sudbury now, the tough times continued for Oshawa, dropping their second straight game to the Wolves, this time by a score of 6-4. Sudbury jumped to a 3-0 lead and never looked back. Both Stuart Rolofs and rookie Beckett Sennecke were bright spots for the Generals, both having multi-point evenings.

Heading south, the Generals were able to find the win column once again, taking down the new look Hamilton Bulldogs 3-2. Hamilton, who like the Generals are in a retooling period, had just parted way with Avery Hayes, Gavin White, and Logan Morrison at the trade deadline. Like so many times this season, it was the Generals jumping out to a 2-0 lead early in the game, except this time they held on. It was Patrick Leaver’s final game as an Oshawa General before being traded to the Guelph Storm. In the game he stopped 26/28 shots.

With some momentum on their side, Oshawa’s next stop was Kitchener, Ont., to take on the shockingly underperforming Kitchener Rangers. Despite the fact the Rangers have a roster with six NHL draftees, they find themselves stuck at 9th in the Western Conference standings. Both teams in the spotlight of a TSN broadcast were ready to impress the nation, but it was Oshawa with more screen time. Projected first round NHL draft pick Calum Ritchie stole the show with two goals and assist, leading Oshawa to a 5-2 victory. Carter Bickle stopped 32/34 for the win.

Winners of back-to-back games, Oshawa crossed the southern border into Erie and quickly took their two points back to the border. With the 4-1 victory over Erie, it was Oshawa’s third win in a row and kept them in the tight race for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Overage forward Ryan Gagnier scored two in the game, his 15th and 16th of his season. Newest Generals Jacob Oster made his debut with a 26 save performance.

Back in Canada, the second last game of the trip was the most highly anticipated, for no other reason than a classic Gens vs Petes matchup. Both teams are moving in very different directions, with Peterborough buying at the deadline and sitting at 4th in the Eastern Conference. Despite the difference in the standings, Oshawa once again opened the scoring. Ryan Gagnier scored a shorthanded goal to give Oshawa the 1-0 lead.

It was his seventh point in his last seven periods of play.

The rest of the game was a back and forth affair, with both goaltenders standing tall. It wasn’t until the remaining 51 seconds of the game that either side would take the lead for good. Brennan Othmann scored his second of the game to give Peterborough the 3-2 victory.

The final game of the trip was on January 20th in Kingston, when the Generals made their first visit of the season to the Leon’s Centre. A win would give them a winning record on the trip, a loss would put them at 3-4.

Oshawa trailed after the first period, 1-0, a period called sloppy for both sides by Calum Ritchie. Neither side could control the puck for much of the period, and very little offense came of it. One positive for the Generals came early in the second period when their league-best power play clicked once again to tie the game.

Back and forth scoring left the game tied 2-2 with less than six minutes to go in the game, and for the second night in a row, Oshawa would allow a late goal that ended up being the deciding factor. The 3-2 loss meant the road trip finished with a record of 3-4-0-0, with two straight 3-2 losses to division rivals.

When the bus pulled back into the Tribute Communities Centre late on Friday evening, The team could take a day to rest before their first home game in three weeks. Remember the question we asked you off the top? With seven games, seven different cities, two overnights, and six points, the Generals logged around 2,410 kilometers on their season long road trip.

Maybe some call seven a lucky number, and maybe some call it perfection – but over the last three weeks, the Generals would look at the number seven and just call it junior hockey.