Wolves jump back into series with 3-1 win

There was no music blasting down the hallway outside the dressing room of the Peninsula Panthers on Friday night in the confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre.  As the players filtered out of the dressing room after being downed by the visiting Westshore Wolves 3-1, there was a little idle chatter but it was clear that the Club had faltered in Game #3 and with the loss, had let the Wolves right back into the series.

"I love the game of hockey a lot," explained Pete Zubersky.  "It is so much like the game of life, you always get what you earn.  Tonight we got exactly what we deserved.  We played the final 20 minutes of the game but if we had managed to win the game based on only playing hard in 20 minutes, it really would not be fair.  Our kids, other than perhaps a couple of them like Koby Hale and Ty Hermsen, all wanted to win without putting in the effort.  We took the loss tonight.  We deserved the loss tonight.  I have said this to our group several times this year.  We are not a very good Club when we do not work hard and tonight we did not work hard."

The Panthers still lead the Best-of-7 series 2-1 and the Wolves win set up a what should be a great game on Sunday night in Colwood and then again on Monday evening back at the Panorama. 

The Wolves scored the only two goals in the middle stanza on markers from Jake Calnan and Nicholas Polomark and it was not until the 6:17 mark of the final period that the Panthers were able to solve Wolves starter Leighton Williams.  Thompson found himself with room in front of Williams after having been set up by Drayson Lum and Justin Post and he made no mistake in beating Williams with a shot that went to the roof of the net.  The "Cats" pressed hard in the last ten minutes of the game and had several great scoring chances however, could not solve Williams another time.  The Panthers pulled their starter, Alex Olson, with just over two minutes remaining and with the man advantage.   Again they tested Williams however, to no avail and at the 18:37 mark Wolves Nathan Gelsinger grabbed a loose puck in his own end and iced it right to the heart of the Panthers' net for the insurance marker.

"I would think that our kids will come ready to go on Sunday," said Zubersky.  "Most of them have never played in a seven game series and perhaps it showed tonight.  They won a couple and it looked like they thought the series was over.  I said right from the start of this series that it would go six or seven games and I still feel the same way.  This one has a long way to go."

In the other Best-of-7 series around the VIJHL, the Campbell River Storm downed the Saanich Braves in Storm country and they now lead that series 2-1.  The Nanaimo Buccaneers and Comox Valley Glacier Kings were idle however, they will get back to business on Saturday evening when the Bucs take their 2-0 series lead into Comox.  And the Victoria Cougars lead the Kerry Park Islanders 1-0 with Game #2 set to go Saturday evening in Mill Bay.

The game at the Q Centre on Sunday will start at 6:00 pm and Game #5 on Monday at the Panorama will see the puck drop at 7:30 pm.