Glacier Kings put Panthers on ice

Head Coach Brad Tippett summed up Friday night action at the Panorama Recreation Centre quite succinctly.  "We have had great progress but tonight we took a step back.  We need some more commitment and bite."

There were no more words from the coach as he spoke quietly outside the Panthers dressing room after the Club dropped a 5-4 decision at the hands of the Comox Valley Glacier Kings.  One could tell that he was not overly impressed with the effort of many of his troops and it clearly showed on his face.  He made it clear that there were players inside the dressing room who did not give enough and it was plain to see that it would not be acceptable as the Club moved forward.

Seventeen-year-old Liam Tutte made his first start between the pipes for the "Cats" from the Peninsula and he took the loss while blocking 24 of 29 shots directed toward him.  The Coach felt there was a puck or two that he might have had, but he certainly was not pointing the finger towards the young stopper.

The Glacier Kings scored at the 4:07 and 4:16 marks of the 1st period on goals by Tristan Sailor and Jake McKenzie.  There would be no more markers in the period and although the play seemed quite even, the Panthers defence coughed up the puck several times and did not compete for 50/50 pucks.

The two Clubs each talled once in the middle stanza, the Glacier Kings at the 1:31 mark on McKenzie's second of the night while Panthers Josh Poland responded at the 4:15 mark when he took a feed off the stick of Michael Sproule and burried a shot behind Marcus Gloss in between the pipes for the visitors.

The Glacier Kings McKenzie lit the lamp for his hat trick goal at 7:33 of the final period, but only two minutes later rookie speedster 17-year-old Jack McMillan scored his first goal in Junior beating Gloss between the wickets.  Another rookie, 16-year-old Joe Stafford-Veale was awarded a helper on the play.  At the 11:06 mark, the Glacier Kings would once again take a three-goal lead.  A  Panthers defenceman had the puck in the neutral zone and it appeared as a pass was not available.  Instead of getting the puck deep, a rink-wide pass was made resulting in a turnover and the Glacer Kings raced into the Panthers zone.  The puck bounced into the slot and rather than the puck being strongly cleared, it softly landed on the stick of Glacier Kings Derick Smith and he deposited the puck behind Tutte.

McMillan scored his 2nd of the game and season on an unassisted marker with just over six minutes remaining.  With Tutte on the bench for an extra attacker in the last minute of play, Poland took the puck out from behind the Glacier Kings net and beat Gloss to pull the home side within a goal.  There was still 33 ticks left on the clock.

Tutte was pulled once the Panthers gained position off the ensuing faceoff and with under ten seconds remaining, it would be Poland once again with the puck speeding down the right side.  Just inside the line he lost the handle and that would be all she wrote and the Glacier Kings moved the puck out of harms way and simply waited for the horn to sound.

The young squad still has a lot to learn in terms of X's and O's but also in the grit and determination part of the game.  There were a couple bright lights but with Trevor Owens, Marshall Brown, Holden Cochrane and Shawn Parkinson out of the lineup with an assortment of injuries, it is time for others to step up and do their job.

McKenzie, McMillan and Poland were named the three stars while Gloss picked up the win blocking 17 of 21 shots.

As Coach Tippett explained, "We need some more commitment and bite."

The Panthers travel to Mill Bay Saturday evening to face the Kerry Park Islanders.