Panthers McKillop pitches a shutout in win over Wolves

It was a clear, warm Friday evening on the Saanich Peninsula and as the Peninsula Panthers and Westshore Wolves took their customary warmups in the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre Friday night, there was a feeling with the 'Cats' that they had some unfinished business to attend to.  The Wolves and Panthers had played their opening games in the first weekend of the season - a pair of 4-3 Wolves wins.  The Wolves had knocked off the Panthers on September 5th in their opener and two nights later, the Panthers were looking to repay the favour in their home opener.  They had led 3-2 with just four minutes left, but the Wolves scored to tie it at 3-3 and then won the game in the first overtime. 

After both Clubs finished the customary 15-minute warmup and had left the ice for final instructions, the Olympia ice cleaning machine did 9 or 10 laps around the arena and once the entire surface was greased, the two Clubs returned in earnest.  A short presentation followed by the introductions of the starting lineup set the stage for 11-year-old Brendan Dawes to step onto the sheet and belt out the National Anthem like no other 11-year-old could possibly do.  And then it was time for the two teams to get busy.

The Wolves carried the play for the first several minutes and at one point had outshot the Panthers 7-0, but the 'Cats' starter Connor McKillop was unbeatable.  And it was only a few minutes later when the Panthers would open the scoring on a solid effort by a forward who would not factor on the scoresheet on the play.  A Westshore Wolves defenceman collected the puck behind his own net but was faced with some immediate pressure as Peninsula Panthers Riley Braun was hustling on the forecheck.  Braun forced the Wolves rearguard to move the puck when he most likely did not want to, and it swept up the wall to the right of Wolves' netminder Jordan Spandli before being gobbled up by Panthers' forward Josh Lingard on the half-wall at the hash marks.  Lingard carried the puck deeper into the Wolves' zone and then cut for the net Spandli was guarding.  The goaltender played the shot on Lingard but the Panthers' leading scorer deftly moved it cross-crease to Tanner Wort who was waiting patiently with a huge smile on his face.  And Wort made no mistake knocking in the Lingard pass into the yawning cage.  Braun did not pick up an assist on the play but his hustle and effort made it possible for his two linemates to shine and his smile was as big as Wort's.  Jason Fletcher announced the Wort goal at the 9:15 mark of the opening stanza with the lone assist going to Lingard, and none of the 264 fans in attendance knew at the time that this marker would prove to be the winner.

Hulking forward Jake Gajda, who is showing improvement each time out, scored his 4th of the season when he beat Spandli on a breakaway eight minutes later.  Defenceman Zack Evans outmuscled a Wolves' forward deep in his own zone and moved the puck to Bryson Hines who was on the wall.  Hines skated the puck to the blueline and then chipped it off the wall to a streaking Gajda who rumbled in on Spandli.  And he made no mistake when he ripped the puck past the startled netminder, a shot that made the water bottle on top of the cage jump up towards the scoreboard.

There would be no scoring in the middle stanza but both Spandli and McKillop were forced to make some key saves.  In the final period, Wort was awarded a penalty shot when a Wolves' player covered the puck in his crease.  Wort came in at half speed, made move after move after move and then went to his backhand from in tight. It looked like Spandli had the best of the showdown, but the puck somehow squeezed by him and it then trickled far enough into the net to light the lamp.  The Panthers and McKillop held tight the rest of the way to record the 3-0 win.
With the shutout victory, the Panthers added to their home win streak which now sits at four and counting. 

Head Coach Brad Tippett on the win, "We had great warmup and I thought we were really engaged. Unfortunately a couple of errant passes early got us in trouble and we struggled to get out of our end the first 8-10 minutes. The Beef line (Gajda, Hines and Hayden Visscher) and the Coneheads (Braun, Wort and Lingard) had back to back dominant shifts and we managed to swing the momentum. I liked the way we played from then on. We still have to finish better and should have been up 3-4 instead of 3.  McKillop gave us timely saves and our penalty killing was excellent."

"We have a great atmosphere going at home right now," opined Pete Zubersky.  "We want to make this a tough place to come in and win and we have now bested Victoria, Comox, Kerry Park and Westshore in our last four at home and would love to continue that streak.  We will get a great test next Friday night when the Campbell River Storm come into town and our guys are already looking forward to that one."

The Panthers will host the Storm on Friday night at 7:30 pm and will then go on a rare overnight two-game tour when they will play the Comox Valley Glacier Kings on Saturday evening and then to Campbell River for a 4:00 pm game next Sunday night.

Panthers tracks....the three stars of the game were Wort, McKillop and Logan Speirs who skated miles all night long....Jonah Ragsdale was out of the lineup with an upper body injury while Scott Arbuckle, Stefan Grunert, David Edgar and Joe Stafford-Veale also did not dress....the Panthers have reached the 1/4 mark in the VIJHL 48-game regular season....