The North Island Midget Eagles played their heart out with a short bench, which consisted of only 10 players and one goalie, against the Oceanside Generals on Saturday at the Don Cruickshank Memorial Arena in Port Hardy.
The Eagles were missing Michael Perez, Luke Gage, Josh Borg, Devin White, Stephen Alfred and goaltender Nigel Walkus from their lineup, whereas the Generals showed up ready to go with a stacked roster of 16 players and two goalies.
The game was a fierce one, with both teams refusing to back down, but it was the Generals who got on the scoreboard first with a goal at 13:51 of the first period.
The Generals then scored again at 10:19 to make it 2-0 and then added another goal with 28 seconds left. The Eagles dug in from there, hitting hard to body in the second period and passing the puck well through the neutral zone. Cody Walkus ended up scoring off a pass from captain Tanner Roberts at 10:49 to cut the Generals lead to 3-1, but the Generals turned up the heat after that, scoring four unanswered goals to make it 7-1 going into the third period.
The Eagles got some revenge in the third, with Roberts scoring at 17:53 and Walkus picking up his second goal of the game at 14:48, but that was all she wrote for the Eagles, as they ended surrendured three more goals before the end of the game, giving a 10-3 win to a very tough Generals team who came ready to battle for possesion of the puck every single shift at all costs.
