The Moose Jaw Generals had their five-game winning streak come to an end on Sunday afternoon, but the team is coming away much happier with the way that they played in the loss.

After a couple of lacklustre efforts that still resulted in wins, the Generals played a hard fought game in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox.

“We hadn’t really competed like this in a long, long time, so it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t get the two points because it was a good effort by our guys,” said head coach Ray Wareham. “A couple of mistakes in the first period, but other than that, we were pretty good today.”

The Generals, who still sit two points up on the Regina Pat Canadians for first place in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League, have struggled to put together complete games despite losing only four times in regulation this season.

Wareham felt like Sunday’s game was the closest that they’ve gotten to how they need to play to have sustained success.

“You try to get the message across to the guys that this has to be the standard that we play at all the times because if you do that, you find ways to win these games, but unfortunately for us, it didn’t go our way in the shootout,” he said.

“We probably hit about 8-10 posts throughout game, so I thought that we played real well today, but it was just one of those games where we couldn’t get it done in the end.”

Building off and bringing the same effort in their next contest is the big challenge ahead for the Generals.

“It’s a constantly thing,” said Wareham. “We should know what we’re doing now, just fine tune some stuff, but it just comes down to the constantly and setting the standard that this is how we have to play every night and they have to show that they can do that.”

Nolan Jones opened the scoring for the Generals just 1:59 into the game, but the Hounds took the lead with back-to-back goals around the midway point of the frame. Austin Miller scored just 1:10 after the Hounds’ second goal to tie the game up and that’s the way it would stay through the rest of regulation and overtime.

Austen Flaman potted the lone goal in the shootout for the Generals, while the Hounds scored on both their attempts to skate away with the win.

The loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for goalie Hunter Arps, who made 30 saves in the loss.  He also had his shutout streak snapped at 160:39 on the Hounds' first period goal.

Moose Jaw fired 13 shots on the Hounds in the first period and finished with 36 shots in the loss.

“On the big ice, we typically don’t play very well here, but guys were moving their feet today, moving pucks, getting a lot of pucks to the net and trying to get there for the rebounds,” said Wareham. “It was a well played game by both teams, as a fan it would have been entertaining, but unfortunately for us, we came out on the wrong end.”

The Generals will take Monday to rest and then head back on the road on Tuesday to face the Legionnaires in Swift Current. Moose Jaw won their meeting last week, 4-0, at the Credit Union Iplex.

Moose Jaw will be back at home on the weekend for two games against the Tisdale Trojans.