Fresh off win, Panthers home opener set for Friday evening!

The "Stray Cats" from the Peninsula are finally coming back home.  After seven straight games on the road, the Peninsula Panthers will once again be playing in the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre on Friday night when they host the visiting Westshore Wolves in what is expected to be a large gathering.  The Club has recorded three wins in the early going, the latest on Wednesday night when they bounced those same Wolves at the Q-Centre by a 6-2 count.

But the focus will be moving forward and the Management and players could not be any happier.  "We are in for a real treat for years and years to come," said Panthers General Manager Pete Zubersky.  "The Panorama Recreation Centre people could not have been more supportive over the past couple of years and now every user group including our Club has been handed the biggest gift we could have ever asked for.  This facility is the best Junior B building on Vancouver Island.  It is the perfect size and with the improvements, it will be more fan friendly and much safer for our Club and other user groups.  Kudos to everyone involved!"

The Panthers have a young squad and although they have won three of their first seven games, Zubersky feels they could have had a couple more wins to that total.  "I thought we played well enough in Victoria several weeks ago to come out with a point or two and last Saturday we were up in Kerry Park and were stymied by a great perfomance by the Islanders' netminder.  We were really happy to squeeze out the win in Westshore but we know they will be coming in here Friday night to turn the tables.  We have to be ready and expect them to have a huge effort and we will have to match or better it."

Six different Panthers hit the twine against the Wolves including Matt Lawrence, Carson Cox, Jack McMillan, Josh Lingard, Riley Braun and Logan Speirs.  Chris Akerman was strong between the pipes blocking 31 of 33 shots tossed in his direction.

Head Coach Brad Tippett was pleased with his troops after challenging them in practice on Monday and Tuesday.  "We had a very slow start. The HockeyTV timeout midway through the first period gave us a chance to regroup. The Cox / Lawrence / McMillian line played a couple hard and physical puck-possession shifts which seemed to spark us.  From that point, we just got better each shift.

We had two hard practices focusing on scoring - hitting the net, rebounds, finishing and battling in front of the net. On our first goal, Lawrence just outworked and out-muscled his way to cash in the rebound.
 
The 6 goals we scored should be a confidence builder and that some of their efforts are being rewarded.

Akerman was solid in goal. He stayed up and made himself big and made a couple of small adjustments after discussing his game with his goaltending coach.  It was a win that every single player was involved in and played a part."

Friday, Ocotober 6 at 7:30 pm set for Panthers Home Opener against the Wolves.  If you were not going to be in attendance, it's time to adjust your plans!