Panthers knock off Wolves 3-2 in OT on PMHA/Fan Appreciation night

The Peninsula Panthers had an amazing record in their annual PMHA/Fan Appreciation night heading to their regular season final game, many of the victories coming in heart-stopping fashion.  And Friday night at the Panorama Recreation Centre was no different.  Winners of 11 of their last 12 Appreciation games, Gavin Yee would extend the amazing run to 12 of 13 when at the 4:06 mark of the 1st Overtime period he waltzed right down Main Street before blasting a shot high on the glove side of Westshore Wolves goaltender Jordan Spandli, a shot that found nothing but net.  And the goal set a Peninsula Panthers group spilling over the boards and onto the ice in what was the perfect ending to what was at times, a tough and grinding season.

"We were like the Titanic quite often this season," quiped General Manager Pete Zubersky.  "We looked great until we hit the ice!  But we never ever quit on each other.  We battled together and we held together, we stayed close through thick and thin.  We have a very, very young group and the learning curve was steep and it was protracted.  But we made a commitment to stick to the plan through thick and thin and we really feel we are in great position moving forward from here.  Tonight was exciting for everyone.  We played hard in front of a real sizeable crowd, crowds like what we are used to seeing when we are a winning hockey club.  I think a lot of our young guys are starting to understand what it takes and it showed tonight."

The Wolves opened the scoring in the 1st frame when Corey Hatcher tallied only 41 seconds in.  Both teams raced up and down the sheet all night long and it would be the Wolves who would strike again, this time at the 2:39 mark of the final stanza.  Hatcher raced down the right side and sauced a nice pass to Cam Coutre cutting through the middle and the slick centre made no mistake beating Panthers starter Justin Anderson. 

There was still a lot of bite left in the Panthers who were wearing a specially made 3rd jersey on the night.  A scramble in front of Spandli ended with Kai Turner batting one to the back of the net at the 7:14 mark with Marshall Brown and Gavin Yee garnering helpers on the play.  And at the 12:45 mark Carson Cox gathered in the disc, raced down the left side and absolutely overpowered Spandli when he ripped a high shot on the glove side that startled the Wolves starter and knotted the game at 2-2.  Both teams had opportunities to end it in regulation time but both Spandli and Anderson were clearly up to the task.  The scene was set and the only thing remaining to allow the story to come to the right ending was taken care of off the stick of Yee for the 3-2 win.  Brown had romped down the right side and just missed the top corner.  The puck bounced off the end wall and eventually landed on the stick of Trevor Owens.  He and Yee played catch a couple times before Yee scored the winner.

Spandli stopped 23 of 26 Panthers shots and was collared for the loss while Anderson was just a bit better in picking up the win and blocked 28 of 30 Wolves attempts.  Yee, Cox and Anderson were selected the three stars respectively.

The night had a lot of twists and turns off the ice.  Once the 1st period was in the books the entire Panthers Club attended into the Lobby of the Arena where they signed autographs for the fans for almost 20 minutes.  And at the end of the game the Panthers gifted the 3rd Jersey to PMHA fans and players alike.

The Peninsula Co-Op and the Mary Winspear Centre were sponsors for the game and both were front and centre at the event.

Four affiliate players were utilized to fill in for Ty Hermsen and Drew Coughlin who were sitting out suspensions and Kye Warmenhoven and Jack McMillan who were somewhat banged up.  Drew MacFayden, Evan King and Logan Speirs were called up from the Peninsula Midget AA Club while Jarrod Lucoe helped out, coming up from the Saanich Midget AA.

Up next for the Panthers is the Sudden Death Wild Card game in Oceanside on Monday night at 7:30 pm.  The winner will move on to face the Campbell River Storm in a best-of-7 series.