It's not where you start, it's where you finish!

There was no question in anyone's mind as to the importance of a VIJHL Wednesday evening matchup between the Peninsula Panthes and the Kerry Park Islanders.  The two Clubs came into the game tied for 3rd place in the South Division with 33 points, only two points behind the 2nd place Westshore Wolves. 

It might have been an omen of things to come when Clayton Butler stepped out onto the ice before the game to sing the National Anthem.  The youngster seems to  get better each time out and is somewhat well known locally after he was chosen to sing at the Hockeyville game on September 21st between the NHL's Canucks and Sharks.  Butler was belting out the Anthem and was 2/3 of the way through, when the microphone gave up the ghost.  The youngster was not sure what to do next however, a fairly sizeable crowd in attendance helped him out by joining in, a warm-hearted touch to the last Vancouver Island Junior Hockey game in 2015.

The two teams met at Centre Ice for the opening faceoff however, only the Kerry Park Islanders were ready to play.  "Yes, they came out to win the game," said Head Coach Rob Mortin.  "We wanted to win as well but we wanted to win easy, without each player paying the price.  This is the 3rd game in a row that we have come out like this, yes it is concerning."

Before the Panthers could sharpen their claws, they were looking at a lopsided 3-0 hill to climb on Islanders goals by Ryan Paisley, Keenan Eddy and Tait Aptakin, the final marker coming at the 14:08 mark of the first period.  And the Islanders went on the attack for more.  With two minutes left in the opening stanza, a goalmouth scramble occured in front of Panthers' starting Goalie Alex Olson and Olson and his mates were fortunate not to be trailing by four goals.  The wounded "Cats" had a breath of life pumped into their lungs with only 31 ticks remaining in the opening stanza when Marty Westhaver and Cam Thompson set up Ryan Warner on the powerplay.  And Warner would make no mistake leaving the teams looking at a 3-1 Islanders' lead as they went to their respective dressing rooms.

Mortin must have sang "Kumbaya" to his group between periods, or perhaps he found twenty more hockey players to take over, because a different Club came out to start the 2nd stanza.  And at the 4:46 mark, Panthers' Trevor Owens scored on the powerplay after some sustained pressure in the Islanders' end.  Captain Spencer Loverock and Justin Post chipped in with helpers on the play.  The Panthers dominated the 2nd frame and had chance after chance on Islanders' netminder Ty Rennie, but it was all for naught and the Club trailed 3-2 after 40 minutes were in the record books.

The final period was all Panthers.  Most fans barely had enough time to put ketchup on their hotdog and return to their seats before Panthers' Grayden Hohl tied the game at the 1:01 mark.  Post was awarded an assist.  And four minutes later it was Josh Poland for the Panthers scoring what was perhaps the prettiest goal of the evening.  Loverock moved the puck to Ben Meyerink in the neutral zone and he deftly tipped the puck to Poland who was flying down the left side.  The pass from Meyerink seemed to freeze the Islanders' defencemen and Poland was able to scoot past the pair and romped in alone on Rennie.  And he would make no mistake ripping a snapshot to the back of the net to give the home squad their first lead of the game.  The Panthers seemed to go into a lockdown mode of play, getting the puck in deep on the Islanders' defence and not giving up much in the way of scoring chances and it remained a one-goal game with 3:50 left to go.  Ty Tremblay gave the Panthers some breathing room when he took a puck to the right of Rennie and shocked the young netminder with a big time blast.  The puck hit Rennie and still had enough to loft lazily over the line and into the back of the net giving the Panthers a 5-3 lead.  With only 1:02 left and Rennie on the bench for the extra attacker, defenceman Garnett Roberts gathered in a puck which was probably in another time zone and blasted a slapshot that went to the heart of the vacated Islanders net, sealing a 6-3 win for the "Cats."

Olson was solid all night long and blocked 27 of 30 shots in picking up the "W", while Rennie was collared with the loss.  He managed to stop 24 of 30 shots in the process.

Roberts, Owens and Olson were named the three stars on the night.

"We played really well for 40 minutes tonight," said Mortin.  "It's not enough to find success.  Our guys are young and I understand that there is a learning curve but this is the most important part of our schedule, we are in the conversation in our Division and we have to be ready."

The two Clubs will be right back at it on Saturday night when the Panthers head up the Highway to Mill Bay for a 7:30 pm start. 

Next Thursday, the Panthers will be in Victoria which will mark their 6th road game in their last 7 games but will be back in the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre next Friday night, January 8th when they face the Westshore Wolves.  Puck drops at 7:30 p.m.