For the first time in 15 seasons, the Moose Jaw Generals won’t be making an appearance in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League playoffs.

The Generals saw their season come to an end over the weekend as they fell twice to the Battlefords Stars at Mosaic Place, losing 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday and 7-3 on Sunday.

“I wish we had another month because we see a lot of good things, but that’s what happens, it’s got to end sometime,” said Generals coach Kevin Moore. 

Moose Jaw will miss the post-season for the first time since the 2002-03 season after posting a 9-29-2-4 record during the regular season. They started slow and could never really get their season on track.

While it was a lost season for the Generals, there’s plenty of positives that the team, which featured 17 rookies, will be looking to build off going into next season.

“The last couple of months, we’ve been getting more poised and being able to make plays as a team, unlike the beginning when we were hesitant of what we were trying to do and now we’re making plays, getting shots and bodies to the net and really finding out how to score,” said rookie forward Ben Wourms-Rowe, who scored in Saturday’s loss, giving him three goals and eight points in 42 games this season.

With so many rookies, including 11 15-year-olds, getting comfortable with the league and coming together as a team were the biggest things that the team needed to overcome throughout the season.

The Generals had a strong effort most nights, but struggled to find ways to keep up on the offensive end.

“We had a lot of kids that were the main guy on their bantam teams and were relied heavily and now they’re starting to figure out that they’ve got to give the puck up and can’t beat guys from one end to another, and it’s shown in the way that we’ve gotten the puck out of the offensive end,” said Moore.

“They’re getting the confidence now, they figured out the speed of the game, so everything is coming with it.”

16-year-old forward Casey McDonald finished as the Generals’ leading scorer with nine goals and 36 points. He had eight multi-point games, including back-to-back four-point games this month.

Jaxon Georget led the team in goals with 18 this season and the 16-year-old forward finished second on the team with 29 points, while Brendan Kemp had 11 goals and 25 points to round out the top-three.

The Generals received some stellar play between the pipes from 17-year-old goalie Jake Davidson and 15-year-old netminder Ethan Hein, who combined to see 1606 shots, or 35.7 shots per game, over the course of the season.

Davidson finished with a 7-16-2 record with a 3.40 goals against average and 0.908 save percentage. Hein won his first start and then didn’t earn another victory until Feb. 8, but he finished with two wins in his final three starts for a 3-15-2 mark on the year. He posted a 4.37 goals against average and a 0.878 save percentage.

Being young and experienced led to struggles in the defensive end, which hampered the Generals during the season as they finished with a -72 goal differential.

“Our defensive zone has gotten a lot better than it was at the start of the season,” said forward Steven Kesslering. “We’ve gotten better as the season has gone on, especially after Christmas, we really connected as a team.”

The record might not have been where they wanted it to be, but the Generals feel like the foundation was laid for a turnaround next season with the entire team, except Davidson, eligible to return.

“We’ve been talking about their attitude, they show up to the rink with a smile on their face and are working hard,” said Moore. “They realize at the start of the year that we’re a young team and there’s going to be growing pains, Ray (Wareham) and the coaching staff were honest with them, so we grew together.

“It’s a great sign going into next year, hopefully the kids that can come back, do, and we can grow off of this.”