Saturday saw the Moose Jaw Generals earn their first home win of the season and they were close to picking up their second straight on Sunday before things went awry.

The Generals skated to a 4-3 shootout win over the Saskatoon Blazers on Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Place, but they followed that up with a 4-3 loss to the Beardy’s Blackhawks on Sunday.

Sunday’s loss was particularly tough for the Generals as the game-winning goal for the Blackhawks came on an own-goal when captain Nolan Jones tipped a shot into his own net.

“That was a tough goal to give up, obviously trying to do the right thing, but we haven’t put together 60 minutes yet,” said Generals coach Kevin Moore.  “We had a terrible first period and got behind the eight-ball, after that we played great.”

The Generals gave up three goals in the opening ten minutes of Sunday’s game.  Beardy’s Holden Knights scored just 2:27 into the game, Ryland McNinch followed that up 1:30 later and then just before the midway point of the period, Nolan Doell made it 3-0 for the Blackhawks.

Brendan Kemp got the Generals on the board just 1:14 after Doell’s goal.

Moose Jaw cut into Beardy’s lead again early in the second period when Jake Palmer scored his sixth of the season to make it a one-goal game.

The Generals finally found the equalizer with 3:18 left in regulation when Cody Davis’ shot found its way into the back of the net.

The tie game was short lived as Boston Bird’s shot tipped off Jones’ stick in front and beat goalie Ethan Hein to put the Blackhawks in front for good with 1:30 to play.

Moore said it was a great final 40 minutes for the Generals, but they had to work too hard because of the slow start, “Behind the eight-ball right away and then a few questionable penalties by our guys, so we need to figure that out,” he said.

Hein turned away 30 shots in the loss on Sunday.

Saturday’s game saw the Generals go back-and-forth with the Blazers before winning in a shootout.

“It wasn’t a very pretty game, it was no Picasso by any means, it was a pretty sloppy game, but at least we got a win out of it, and our first home win,” said Moore.

Moose Jaw Warriors prospect Cole Nagy opened the scoring less than a minute into the second period with a power play goal for the Blazers.

The Generals and Blazers would trade goals late in the period with Jaxon Georget scoring at 13:35 for the Generals, followed by Ethan Ironside for Saskatoon just 1:21 later.  Moose Jaw was able to send the game into the third tied when Brendan Kemp picked up a power play goal with 57 seconds left in the middle frame.

Kemp’s second of the game with 5:21 left put the Generals in front, but Saskatoon’s Max Gudnason tied the game with 1:45 to play to send the game to overtime.

Evan Sare scored the lone goal in the shootout to lift the Generals to the win.  Goalie Jake Davidson turned away 21 shots during regulation and overtime and then stopped all three shooters in the shootout for the win.

The Generals now sit at 5-10-0-2 on the year and have continued to play tight games, but haven’t been able to break through consistently.

“We’d still like to see more out of them, we have some good practices and take a step forward and then we go sideways a couple and back one, but they’ve just got to figure out how to play for 60 minutes, it’s a good league,” said Moore.

The Generals have a rematch with the Blazers on Wednesday in the Bridge City.