Home ice hasn’t been much of an advantage so far this season for the Moose Jaw Generals.

The Generals lost 5-3 to the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday in a home game at the Barkman Arena in Caronport and then they dropped a 4-1 game to the Saskatoon Blazers on Sunday at Mosaic Place.  Those two losses put Moose Jaw’s record at 0-5 this season on home ice.

Moose Jaw has a 3-6-0-2 overall record on the year in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League.

“The kids are working hard,” said Generals coach Kevin Moore.  “Against P.A. we actually won two periods, we laid an egg in the second and it cost us, and today, we didn’t have any puck luck.

“We’re trying to stay positive because we’re a young team, but when you’re 0-5 at home with two losses against the Blazers and one to the Argos, which are teams below us, those are games that we need to win.”

The Generals are generating chances, working hard at both ends of the ice, but aren’t seeing the rewards that usually come along with it.

“The kids have been in every game this year, so we’re a lucky goal away in some games,” said Moore.

“Our compete level is getting better, we’re battling with these teams,” added forward Cal Caragata.  “(On Saturday), we took too many penalties and it cost us in the second and today, in the third, it got away from us, we’re giving them too many good chances so we need to buckle down in our D zone.”

The work ethic is something that the Generals are focusing on as they’ve been bringing a strong effort to all games and will hope for the rewards to start coming.

“It’s a big jump from bantam to midget AAA, so they’re realizing that all the other teams, these kids are trying to get to the next level and so you can’t take a shift off or a game off and they’re learning,” said Moore.

Jake Palmer scored in the first period on Saturday to give the Generals a 1-0 just over four minutes into the game, but the Mintos struck for four goals in the second period, including three on the power play.

After Prince Albert went up 5-1 early in the third period, the Generals fought back with goals from Brendan Kemp and Evan Sare, but they couldn’t fight all the way back.

On Sunday, the Blazers opened the scoring late in a back-and-forth first period.  The score stayed that way until late in the second when Alec Saretzky made it 2-0 for Saskatoon, but Caragata answered back quickly for the Generals, making it a one-goal game going into the third.

Saskatoon scored midway through the frame and then added an empty netter to seal the win.

“We’ve just got to generate more chances,” said Caragata, who leads the team with six goals and 10 points in 11 games this season.  “We’re having trouble scoring, so we’ve just got to get more pucks on net.  We’ve been close in a lot of these games, but we’ve just got to buckle down in the end and get the win.”

Both goalies were busy for the Generals as they split the two games on the weekend.  Jake Davidson made 46 saves in Saturday’s loss, while Ethan Hein turned away 32 shots in Sunday’s loss.

Moore said that they need to clean up the number of chances that they’re giving up, “We gave them probably three of their four goals (on Sunday) and in this league you can’t do that and come back, you’ve got to make them earn it,” he said.

The Generals will get a week off to work on their game as they prepare for a trip to the Bridge City on Sunday to square off with the Saskatoon Contacts.