Panthers take the steam out of the Wolves in a 5-2 win

The ice was being greased and the tunes were playing as the fans from both the Westshore Wolves and Peninsula Panthers began to filter into the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre just before 7:30 pm on Friday evening.  Missing from the Panthers lineup for the contest were Goaltender Bryce Schiebel, forward Joe Stafford-Veale and defencemen Bailey Ross, Skyler Diamond-Burchuk and Braeden Hansen either due to injury or suspension.  But the Panthers continued with their "Next man up" mentality and it paid off in spades.

Chris Akerman made the start between the pipes and was stellar for the full 60 minutes.  Forwards Riley Braun and Ty Hermsen were seen on the back end for a lot of the evening and Peninsula Eagles Midget AP callup Brendan McTavish did not look out of place in any way.  And when all was said and done the Panthers were full value for a 5-2 win.  The Club scored two power play markers and perhaps scored their most pretty goal of the season midway through the final stanza when Marshall Brown beat Woves starter Jordan Spandli after tick-tacking the puck with linemates Josh Lingard and Carson Cox.

Cainan Briscoe opened the scoring at the 6:49 mark of the opening stanza when he ripped a bullet past Spandli and into the Wolves cage.  It appeared that the Wolves stopper lost sight of the puck after an attempt went wide and Briscoe was there to clean up the mess and did so happily.  The suddenly hot Matt Lawrence , Tanner Wort with two power play markers and Brown were the Panthers marksmen on the evening while Wolves Kieran Cardinal and Chase O'Keefe replied for the visitors.

Spandli blocked 28 of 33 shots in picking up the loss while Akerman was good on 35 of 37 attempts and collected the win.  The three stars were Wort, Brown and Akerman.

"It was a really nice win to put up on the board," said Pete Zubersky.  "The VIJHL right around that 20-25 point range is pretty crowded right now and so we have to find a way to continue to win hockey games.  I thought that we moved the puck better than we have for quite a while and when we do that we will always find success."

With the win the Panthers moved into sole possession of 2nd spot in the South Division, a point more than the Victoria Cougars.  They trail the Wolves by seven points after the win.

The Club does not have a whole lot of time to enjoy the win as they will travel up Island to face the Oceanside Generals on Saturday night.  They will return to the Panorama for a rare Tuesday night game against the Victoria Cougars before going head-to-head in a home and home series against the Saanich Braves next weekend.