Reload time for Generals

And that’s a wrap for the 2012-13 edition of the Oshawa Generals, a season that started with such promise but came to crashing end last night at the GMC.

The Barrie Colts finished the four game sweep of the Eastern Conference semi-finals on a rainy Tuesday evening in Oshawa with a 4-2 victory, but the killing blow actually came during a span of six minutes and twenty seconds at the end of Game 1 last Wednesday in Barrie.

That was when the Generals, holding a 3-1 lead over the Colts at the Barrie Molson Centre and seemingly imposing their will on the Lake Simcoe squad, let it slip away. It started when Steve Beyers scored against the run of play withy 4:52 to play to narrow the deficit to 3-2 and then, after an ill advised slashing penalty, Zach Hall scored the equalizer with just over three minutes remaining.

Hall then won it for the Colts 1:18 into the extra frame.

The Generals, who had taken out Niagara in five games in the first round and looked good doing it, never recovered and went down rather meekly three games later.

The Generals were one of the pre-season favourites in the OHL and were still nationally ranked after Christmas. A mid-season swoon – injuries, suspensions to key players and Team Canada call-ups all played a part – distanced them from the big boys, but a late season charge allowed them to almost catch Barrie for the second seed in the conference and energized the squad entering the playoffs.

Then it was vengeance time as Oshawa faced Niagara, the team that eliminated the Generals the past two seasons.

No problem, said DJ Smith’s team, and the Oshawa fans started to dream a bit. Maybe, they mused, this is the year.

Now the organization is left wondering about the future. With a lot of firepower up front not likely to return in captain Boone Jenner, big Tyler Biggs and the two Scotts – Laughton and Sabourin – the Generals are probably looking at a rebuild, with an eye on 2017.

That seems to be the best opportunity for Oshawa to try a win a bid to host the Memorial Cup, something that hasn’t been held in the Motor City since we held the tournament in 1987 in the old Civic Auditorium.

Oshawa put together a good bid for the 2008 Memorial Cup, with the brand new General Motors Centre as the venue and superstar-in-waiting John Tavares as the drawing card, but lost to the City of Kitchener.

Some say Kitchener threw more guaranteed cash on the table. Others whisper that the abandoned Genosha Hotel and the equally derelict Alger Press building – both within a stone’s throw of the GMC – conspired to influence the selection committee.

The Generals do have a chunk of their defence returning and a trio of young forwards – Cole Cassels, Michael Dal Colle and Bradley Latour – coming back, but I don’t see the team as a serious contender for next year.

So let’s shoot for 2017. The Alger Press building is now a retro-cool UOIT building and maybe – just maybe – that’s enough time for the City to find a buyer for the Genosh.

We can always dream, anyway.

Go Gens!