Hockey Ops. - September 23, 2016

Good Evening Hockey fans on the Peninsula!

Welcome back tonight for the back end of our home-and-home series with the visiting Westshore Wolves.  We sit in 4th position in the South with the Wolves, albeit, they have two games in hand. 

On Wednesday, we travelled to Colwood and beat the Wolves at the Q Centre by a 4-1 count.  Shawn Parkinson was between the pipes for our first win of the season and a big one it was.  The game opened with a Mitch Moloney slashing penalty in the first minute of action however once that was killed off, we began to roll.  Michael Sproule was sent in on a breakaway on a pretty play in the neutral zone by Josh Poland and Kai Turner, and then goals by Poland and 16-year-old rookie Joe Stafford-Veale gave us a 3-0 lead after the 1st.  For Joe it would prove to be his first in Junior Hockey and so a big congrats goes out to him.  The Wolves scored the lone goal in the 2nd and the score stayed at 3-1 until the final seconds of the game.  With Sproule in the penalty box and the Wolves netminder on the bench for the extra attacker, Turner blocked a shot, moved the puck down the ice and deposited it into the empty net to seal a 4-1 win.

It was nice to get the W and to get that winning feeling around the Club but as I have said quite a number of times, I believe that the wins will come once we get our feet under us.  We have a win and two overtime losses to show in seven games but our record certainly could be much, much better.

Last Friday night at home in front of our fans we dropped a 3-2 game in double overtime to the visiting Kerry Park Islanders.  We came out of the chute rather slowly but Parkinson made a couple huge saves to keep us in it and we were able to knot the score at 2-2 midway through the final stanza.  And with just a couple minutes to go in the game, the Islanders were whistled and sent to the sin bin opening the door for our Club to jump through.  We scored what appeared to be the winner with just 1:44 remaining however, the officials decided to huddle to chat about what had just happened.  Turner had just shoveled the winner past the Islanders goalkeeper and the puck went right to the back of the net to set off a celebration for the goal that looked like it would be the winner.  But after a discussion, the refs decided to call it no goal.  I believe they were the only ones in the rink including the Kerry Park contingent who did not actually see the puck go in.  The ref skated to our bench and relayed to us that he did not have it in.  I was not sure what that meant but the game went on and we would lose late in the 2nd Overtime frame.  It was a frustrating loss to say the least and after the game I even heard from the Kerry Park people that the puck was clearly in and they did not understand why they were gifted with the win.  It is hockey and the officials are learning their trade in this League just as the players are.  Over the course of a season, things all even out and I expect that down the road a puck will bounce our way and the other Club will be crying about what could have been.

We now need to continue with some of the momentum we gained on Wednesday.  Out of the lineup tonight will be Trevor Owens and Marshall Brown, both with broken legs.  Brown had his cast removed and he is now in an air cast.  He goes back to see the Dr. in three weeks and I expect that he will be cleared to start practice and should be back in the lineup in four weeks.  Owens is still a bit behind.  Rookie Jack McMillan missed Wednesday’s game with what we thought might be an appendix problem but that has not been confirmed.  We are still trying to figure out what is happening with Jack and he will be a game time decision by Coach Brad Tippett.  If he is ready to go, we should have 21 healthy bodies and will have to make a decision on who to scratch on the night.  Everyone has been playing hard and I expect that whomever is out tonight will be back in the lineup on the weekend.

Our defence played their best game of the year on Wednesday, look for a bit more of that tonight.  I’m not sure who is going to make the start tonight but both Parkinson and Liam Tutte have done a nice job and we are more than comfortable with both.

Many of you may have seen that we had video equipment set up at centre ice last Friday.  We are now streaming our games live on the internet on FastHockey.  We have a cameraman however are looking for a play-by-play and color person.  If you are interested or know of somebody, please let me know.  It is a volunteer position but should be good for a giggle or two!!

OK, the ice has been greased and the puck is about to drop.  Thanks for the support this evening.  I hope you enjoy the game!

Pete Zubersky