It's no Bologna, Panthers get Moloney!

Eighteen-year-old defenceman Mitch Moloney is in the fold with the Peninsula Panthers Hockey Club.  The Organization finally acquired Moloney on Wednesday afternoon and it was just in time for the big and rugged defenceman to join the Club for their big evening affair with the Westshore Wolves.  Moloney had been toiling for the Victoria Cougars however, the Panthers were able to pry him out of their crosstown rivals grip, a move that will solidify the defence corps and a move that the Panthers have been trying to accomplish for quite some time.

"I watched Mitch in the Victoria Grizzlies camp in April of 2014, was on the bench for several of the camp games that he played," said General Manager Pete Zubersky.  "I wanted to get him at that time and worked on it for the next couple of months however, Mitch decided that he wanted to go a different route.  I again tried to acquire him and had a deal in place with the Victoria Cougars in late August, but Mitch was not ready to change course.  I have been working with the Cougars and at midnight last night we came close to getting an agreement in place.  There was a little tweek here and there this morning and when we had an agreement early in the afternoon, I called Mitch and he jumped at the opportunity to join our Club.  His words were, "Let's do this!" 

Zubersky continued, "Moloney will be a huge part of the back end on the Panthers.  He will add a bit of bite to our group.  He knows quite a number of the players on our roster and so the transition should be an easy one for him.  We will look for him to play significant minutes right away, it's a piece that we felt we needed and with him being a local kid, it fits nicely into our Organizational blueprint."

The deal has a lot of moving parts and was a bit more intricate that most agreements between Clubs.  The Panthers will not lose anyone off their current roster, future considerations will be weighed by both teams involved.

And Moloney did not have to wait long to jump into the fire with the Panthers.  Having moved addresses only hours before a 7:00 pm game against the Westshore Wolves, Moloney showed up at the Q Centre, most likely with a whole lot of excitement and undoubtedly some butterflies.  The situation was similar to the acquisition of Garnett Roberts last year on December 21st.  The deal for Roberts happened just hours before the Panthers played the Wolves on a 5:00 pm Sunday afternoon game at the Q Centre and undoubtedly Roberts and Moloney shared this story before the drop of the puck. 

Moloney was standing on the blueline with his new Club for the National Anthem at the start of the game, a huge contest for both squads.  Going into the game, Moloney's new squad trailed the Wolves in the standings by only three points in the battle for 2nd place.  And they were only a point ahead of the Kerry Park Islanders in the tight South Division of the VIJHL.  The game was a four-pointer in every way and both Club's looked ready when the puck was dropped to open the game.

The Panthers looked strong in the early game and outshot the Wolves 10-6 when 20 minutes were in the books, but a couple of defensive lapses cost the Club dearly and went to the dressing room down 2-1 to the hosts.  Jake Calnan opened the scoring at the 7:28 mark for the Wolves, but it did not take long for the "Cats" to wipe out the one-goal lead.  The Panthers went on the power play and it would be Kai Turner from down low who converted just past the midway mark, with helpers on the play from Garnett Roberts and Trevor Owens.  Not to be outdone, it was the Wolves' Nathan Gelsinger who was left all alone at the side of Panthers' starter Alex Olson at the 11:58 mark.  Olson made a nice save on the first attempt however, a breakdown left Gelsinger with nothing to do but tap in the rebound into a gaping Panthers' cage.

The middle stanza was a display of firebrand hockey with the Panthers outscoring the Wolves 4-2 to take a 5-4 lead into the 2nd intermission.  Grayden Hohl scored only 49 seconds into the period with assists going to linemates Owens and Turner.  At the 8:55 mark, a faceoff was set to the left of Wolves' starter Chris Smith.  Westhaver walked past the Wolves defender on the draw and snapped one high in the cage past a startled Smith.  And then Owens jumped into the act once again, scoring at the 15:00 minute mark.  Owens, who was doing a bit of extra duty after the "Magician" Koby Hale had to leave the game with a bout of the flu, was playing in the middle between Michael Sproule and Ty Tremblay.  The two wingers battled down low beside the Wolves cage to gain possession of the disk and moved it to Owens who was in the low slot.  He made no mistake beating Smith.  It only took the Wolves ten seconds to reply as somehow Cory Hatcher got in behind the Panthers defence and skated in alone on Olson.  Hatcher shot the puck and it appeared as though Olson had it smothered under his pad.  Hatcher crashed into Olson, driving the goaltender into the net and knocking the cage from its moorings.  The puck went in however, there was a long discussion between officials in an attempt to determine if Hatcher had in fact put the biscuit in the basket.  Referee Jordie Davis eventually signalled a goal much to the chagrin of the Panthers bench.  But the Wolves were not done yet.  Only 55 seconds later, Jacob Malloch converted on a shot to beat Olson and it looked as if the two Clubs would go to the dressing rooms knotted at 4-4.  Turner had a different idea.  Owens moved the puck back to Loverock on the power play and he drifted a shot towards Smith.  Turner was cruising through the low slot and a crafty little tip was enough to give the Panthers the lead once again, this time at the 19:16 mark.

The game swung back and forth in the final stanza and just two seconds past the midway mark, Roberts moved the puck to Cam Thompson.  Thompson pulled Smith towards him as he moved within ten feet of the Wolves net and then he made an outstanding five foot pass onto the stick of Westhaver.  All Westhaver had to do was pull the trigger into a wide open net from three feet, something like shooting a puck off the dock into the water and he would make no mistake.  The Wolves were not done yet when at the 11:07 mark, the Wolves simply outworked the Panthers and Calvin Walker made them pay, beating Olson and getting them to a goal at 6-5.  Ty Hermsen sealed the deal at 12:28.  Hermsen and Tremblay battled low in the Panthers' zone and willed the puck out of their own end with a workmanlike effort.  The puck was moved to Owens and the trio attacked in the Wolves' zone before Owens and Tremblay set up Hermsen in the low slot just to the left of Smith.  Hermsen snapped one to the top of the net to give the Panthers back the two-goal advantage, a lead they would not give back.  The Wolves pulled Smith with just over a minute left and at one point, Westhaver pulled out of his own zone, gained the centre line and had only one defenceman to get the puck by to get his hattie.  But the talented 16-year-old shot the puck just outside the blue line striking the defender in the pads and the puck rolled harmlessly into the corner.

The Panthers celebrated their 7th win in a row, their 9th win in the last 10 games.  Olson picked up the win and was good 26 of 31 shots sent his way, while Smith took the loss and blocked 28 of 35 shots.  Westhaver, Turner and Hatcher were the three stars on the night.

The Panthers stay on the road for the next two games taking on the Saanich Braves on Friday evening before heading to Nanaimo on Sunday for a contest against the red hot Nanaimo Buccaneers.