Generals Beat Up On Troops

OSHAWA, ON – The Oshawa Generals pummeled the North Bay Battalion 6-2 in their home opener at the Tribute Communities Centre on Sunday night.

The Generals started goaltender Jaden Cholette, who was coming off a strong 28-save, 3-2 victory over the Brampton Steelheads.

On the other end of the ice, the Battalion turned to their 11th overall pick in the 2026 OHL Priority Selection, Owen Loftus. He was coming off a stellar OHL debut, making 34 saves in the Battalion’s 2-1 opening night victory over the Barrie Colts.

First Period

The Generals struggled to break the puck out of the defensive zone in the season opener against the Brampton Steelheads, which limited their offensive zone time.

That wasn’t a problem in the first period for the Gennies, where the defence corps had much better first passes that allowed Oshawa to turn up ice with pace.

With more time in the offensive zone, Oshawa did a good job getting traffic in front of Battalion goaltender Loftus. All the traffic in front of the net created each of the three goals for the Generals.

First, it was Brennan Huyck getting his first OHL goal after banging in a loose puck off a rebound. The chance was created from a good passing play off the rush for the Gennies with Cole Mazzoni and Ryan Hedley each picking up an assist on the play.

Then Kane Cloutier grabbed the first home goal of his OHL career after a point shot from Leo Laschon hit Cloutier. The puck landed on his stick, and he fired it home to double the lead.

The third goal looked similar to the second after Cloutier was stopped; Kalto’s rebound was blocked, but the puck found its way to Caden Taylor’s stick. Taylor whacked it through the crowd of bodies and into the back of the net.

Unfortunately for the Gens, the lack of discipline became a theme of the night with the Generals taking nine minor penalties. At the end of the first period, North Bay took advantage of a power play after North Bay left-winger Shamar Moses fired a nice pass that looked like a shot to the tape of Evgeny Dubrovtsev, who tapped it in.

​Second Period

Fortunately for Oshawa, the penalty kill got that goal back in the second period after Tyler Hinde took the puck in the defensive zone, laid it off to Kalto, who skated it all the way to the offensive zone and fired a puck on net. The rebound popped out off of Loftus’ pad, and Hinde banged in his first of the season.

The Gennies would score one more off a faceoff at the end of the second period, with Aiden O’Donnell scoring his first of the year off a rebound, which led Oshawa into the third period up 5-1.

Third Period

Each team traded goals in the third period, with Kam Hodgson scoring on a one-timer for North Bay and Mark Pape scoring his first of the season for Oshawa.

Late in the third period, Hinde would end the scoring after burying his second of the game on the power play off a rebound.

It was a high-scoring, action-packed game, but the Generals set the tone early and never looked back.

Jaden Cholette was outstanding, making several big saves while the game was still tight to maintain the lead. His performance earned him second star of the game. Kane Cloutier added a goal and an assist to his rookie season totals, and Hinde scored twice tonight.

Another area where we saw big improvements from Oshawa was at the face-off dot. After winning just 40 per cent of the draws in Brampton, they turned that into 54 per cent tonight.

The Generals looked much better on Sunday than they did in Brampton to open the season Friday night. Next up? Oshawa takes a trip to Guelph Friday, Sep. 25th to weather the Storm.