Panthers edged on buzzer beater in double overtime

It is hard to break out of a slump and the toughest part is often thought to be breaking through the mental side of the ledger.  The Peninsula Panthers are feeling that first hand and a heart-wrenching loss on Friday night in the not so friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre put an exclamation mark on that point.

The visiting Nanaimo Buccaneers invaded the Panorama and the two Clubs needed to go up and down the ice for 69:57 of regulation and overtime to finally decide a winner.  And with only three seconds left in the second overtime stanza, Buccaneers Dylan Hartl was left all alone to the right of Panthers' starter Shawn Parkinson and made no mistake to give the Bucs a stunning 3-2 win.  While the visitors celebrated in the corner to the right of Parkinson, a disappointed group of "Cats" limped to the dressing room.

"We have to look to tomorrow and not focus on the rear view mirror," explained Panthers Governor Pete Zubersky.  "It was a pretty quiet room after the loss and I know that there are a lot of guys in that room that want to win games.  It's not easy to win in this league and every single guy has to pay a price; everyone has to pull on the rope together.  I thought for the most part we did a lot of that today but we need to have all 20 guys know that they did everything that they could to win.  When we have that effort and commitment, the wins will come."

The Panthers had several chances in overtime to end it and as often happens in a tailspin, it is not easy to pull out of.  The Club hit three posts in the extra frames, the best chance coming off a Captain Josh Poland opportunity when he walked right down Main Street and from the low slot snapped a shot that clanged off the post behind Bucs starter Cedric Lesieur.

The game started on a positive note for the Panthers when Marshall Brown scored his first goal of the season in his first game back after breaking his leg in exhibition back on August 26th.  Recently acquired Drew Coughlin raced down the left side and brought the puck to the net and after he and Poland batted it around, Brown collared the biscuit and sent it cleanly past Lesieur to the back of the Bucs' net at the 3:12 mark.  The lead held up but with only 41 ticks left in the 1st period, Bucs Patrick Poets scored on the power play to knot the game at 1-1.

And Poets gave the visitors their first lead when at the 13:07 mark, he sat behind the Panthers defence and after receiving a 100' pass, raced in alone on Parkinson.  Poets made a crafty move before tucking the puck between the lanky goaltenders wickets.  The Bucs carried the play through most of the 2nd frame and although it was not pretty, the Panthers only trailed 2-1 after 40 minutes were firmly in the books.

The Panthers had several good chances in the 3rd period and at the 12:28 mark, Michael Sproule wheeled from the left wall to the net after receiving a pass from Coughlin and ripped a shot over the left shoulder of Lesieur to tie the score.  The two teams exchanged chances during the final seven minutes but both goaltenders held firm and it would take double overtime to determine the winner.

Parkinson blocked 32 of 35 shots directed his way while Lesieur was one shot better stopping 24 of 26 Panthers attempts.  Coughlin, Brown and Lesieur were selected as the three stars on the night.

The Panthers head up to Oceanside to face a Generals team on Sunday afternoon before returning home next Friday night when the Kerry Park Islanders come in for a visit.  The puck drops at 7:30 pm.