Panthers take one on the chin

It was plus 1 and then minus 1 for the Panthers in the week preceeding a tilt with the Victoria Cougars on Friday evening at the Panorama Recreation Centre.  The "Plus 1" came in the form of last season's leading scorer, Grayden Hohl who was added to the roster earlier in the week.  The 19-year-old sniper had been plying his trade in Junior "A" with the Fresno Monsters in Fresno, California. The "Minus1" surfaced on Thursday night when General Manager Pete Zubersky received a call from the Cowichan Capitals of the British Columbia Hockey League requesting the use of 17-year-old defenceman Ryan Warner for their game this evening at the Q Centre against the hometown Victoria Grizzlies.

"It sure was an interesting week," quipped Zubersky.  "We learned that we were getting Hohl back on the squad and we certainly welcome and need the extra scoring punch.  It was a bad news/good news scenerio with Warner.  I am happy that he is able to make his Junior A debut with the Caps tonight, but I would have loved it to be an off night, a night where our guys could have gone out and watched and supported him.  I knew we would miss him this evening against the Cougars and we did.  That being said, we never want to say no to an opportunity for a player of ours, that's just what we do and so good for Ryan."


Hohl was playing the right side on a line with 16-year-old Marty Westhaver and 17-year-old Ben Dawson when the puck dropped shortly after 7:30 pm against a Cougar squad that had won seven straight games coming into the contest.  "We feel we can compete with them because of our speed, but know that we have to be disciplined and stay out of the box.  They have a great power play but it is only effective if we go to the box," said Zubersky.

Alex Olson made the start between the pipes for the Panthers while the Cougars went with Anthony Ciurro.  The visitors stormed out of the gate and carried the play until the 5:47 mark when Kurtis Gamble opened the scoring for them.  Things seemed to settle down and the Panthers got into the flow and at the 11:06 mark a hard working shift lead by Koby Hale resulted in a marker for the Panthers.  Hale took the puck off his shin pad and wisked the puck past Ciurro to knot the score at 1-1, Michael Sproule and Ty Tremblay drew assists.  But with just over one minute left in the first frame the Panthers were out worked and out willed by a strong Cougar forecheck and Kameron Fink finally put a shot past Olson.

The two teams went to intermission with a 2-1 score in favour of the visitors and there would be more to follow.  In the 2nd stanza both teams had some great chances and the game seemed to be even but Affiliate Player Zack Evans was whistled when he sent a Cougar forward for a spill with what appeared to be a perfectly timed hip check.  The referee saw it differently and Evans was dispatched to the penalty box with a two minute minor penalty for clipping.  And the Cougars wasted no time on the power play when Cody Hodges converted only several seconds into the Evans minor.  It was then Panthers Garnett Roberts who would be whistled for a high sticking infraction and before he had time to settle in and get comfortable in the sin bin the Cougars struck again.  At the 19:04 mark Dom Kolbeins took a pass just to the left of Olson and after walking right in he drifted a shot high on the blocker side for a 4-1 Cougars lead.  The puck was dropped at Centre Ice and Panthers Josh Poland somehow managed to get the puck through a Cougars defender in the neutral zone and sped in on Ciurro.  Panthers Michael Neal whistled down the right side to make it a 2-on-1 opportunity but it would be all Poland as he ripped a shot high on the blocker side past a shocked Cougars netminder with 40 ticks left in the period.  Drayson Lum picked up a helper on the goal.

The Panthers came out of the gates hard in the 3rd frame and down by a 4-2 count, looked for a tally to get back into the contest.  And lady luck would shine brightly.  At the 3:26 mark Roberts dumped a puck into the Cougars zone and a nice forecheck by Cam Thompson and Poland resulted in a lucky bounce that somehow found its way to the back of the Cougars net.  Roberts was awarded with the goal with an assist going to Thompson.  The Panthers continued to apply the pressure bent on getting the equalizer and a huge chance occured when defenceman Spencer Loverock blew down the left side, beat a Cougars defenceman, cut in hard and had Ciurro at his mercy.  But the goaltender held firm snaking out his left pad for his biggest save of the night.  The Cougars John Kretzchmeir scored at the 12:00 minute mark and then Ryan Buse 28 seconds later put the nail in the coffin when he too beat Olson.  Nathan Looysen got into the act adding an insurance marker for the crosstown cats with just over four minutes remaining.

Olson blocked 24 of 31 shots while Ciurro picked up the win stopping 26 of 29 Panthers attempts.  Kolbeins, Roberts and Hodges were selected the games three stars.

"I felt that the score did not reflect the flow of the game," said Zubersky.  "Our kids battled hard for much of the game but at times they simply wanted the puck more than we did.  I liked our effort.  We can be much stronger on the puck, every single guy has to do just that.  If we do we can compete with the best teams in the league.  Now we need to come out tomorrow and put in a big effort in Comox."

The Club does not have to wait long to get back into the win column and they will board the iron lung tomorrow at 2:30 pm for their trip up to the Comox Valley where they will tangle with the Glacier Kings.  The Panthers won an exciting 4-3 overtime affair back on September 19th when they were last in Comox and were looking for much of the same result.  Sixteen-year-old rookie goaltender Shawn Parkinson picked up the win.  The Panthers will be back at home at the Panorama Recreation Centre next Friday night when they host the visting Kerry Park Islanders in a huge Southern Division tilt.  The puck is set to drop at 7:30 pm tomorrow in Comox and next Friday at home.