All it took was one shot to close the curtains on a stellar season for the Moose Jaw Generals.

Josh McDougall fired a wrist shot through traffic that went over the left shoulder of goaltender Colby Entz with 3:12 left in the third period as the Tisdale Trojans won the fifth and deciding game of their Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League semifinal series by a score of 2-1 at Mosaic Place on Tuesday night.

"That's what sucks about sports," Generals head coach Ray Wareham said. "Someone wins and someone loses and unfortunately for us we lost tonight.

"I asked the guys in the pre-game meeting to leave everything they had out on the ice tonight and I thought they did that. It was a valiant effort by both teams and if your a fan I think that's everything you could have wanted out of a deciding game."

The game-winning goal was a moment of redemption for McDougall as the Trojans lost Game 5 of the semifinal series in their own rink a year ago to the Battleford Stars.

"What a feeling," McDougall said. "It's good to put that one away and it's really special for all the guys, and especially the veterans who lost in Game 5 last year.

"We had a big push at the end of the game and I was just hoping to put one away before the game went to overtime. It was a full team effort tonight. Everyone was playing phenomenal."

Although they were outshot 35-27, the Generals had a number of chances to take the lead in the third period.

Tyson Manz was turned aside on a breakaway by Trojans goaltender Justen Close and the duo of Evan Thomas and Cole Fonstad had a couple of chances in tight but were unable to find the back of the net.

Thomas also looked to have scored goal in the first period only to see the puck ring off of the post.

"We a lot of chances and we probably had enough of them to win the game," Generals captain Caleb Riess said. "They were just able to capitalize on their one chance and we didn't.

"I felt like we played our best tonight and we were able to execute throughout the game. It's a tough way to lose a chance at making it to the finals like we did tonight."

Manz gave the Generals the lead early in the game as he picked up a loose puck at centre ice, went by a pair of Trojans defenders and shot the puck over the glove hand of Close.

Jesse Korytko tied the game up for the visitors a couple of minutes later to set up a tightly contested goaltending battle between Close and Entz for the rest of the night.

"It was a fun game to be a part of and it was great to have a battle like that to get in the finals," Entz said. "It was a gutsy effort by our guys but someone has to lose. It's not a great feeling right now that's for sure."

"We knew what Colby was capable of doing and I thought he was fantastic," Wareham said. "He's been with us for three years, and it's not that (Hunter) Arps did anything wrong, but I wanted to go with Colby and he did everything in his power to get us to the final."

While the Generals came up one goal short in becoming the first local Midget AAA team to make it to the league finals since 1987, their 2015-16 campaign is one that Wareham is hoping to build on for the future.

"We can gain a lot of confidence from this year," Wareham said. "At the start of the season a lot of people laughed at us. Our back end had a lot of new guys and our forwards weren't all that experienced.

"With a second place finish and going to the fifth game of the semis, we have a lot to be proud of. I did things all year to try and push some buttons to get them going but I couldn't ask anything more from the team than what they gave us tonight. They gave everything they had."

Next up for the Trojans is a date with the Notre Dame Hounds in the SMAAAHL final. The best-of-five series is expected to begin on Friday.

"We beat them three out of the four times this year but they really gave it to us the last time we played them in Tisdale," Trojans head coach Darrell Mann said.

"The biggest thing for us is to get our energy back. It's tough to forget a series like this but we have to in order to get ready for the league finals."

The Trojans last won the league championship in 2004 while the Hounds picked up three straight championships in 2008 to 2010, which included back to back national titles in 2009 and 2010.