Panthers' season ends at the hands of the Storm in 7th game heartbreaker

The Peninsula Panthers' season came to a sudden halt Sunday night in Campbell River in front of 1000 fans; a hungry crowd that wanted to accept nothing less than a win for their local Storm Hockey Club.  And they were rewarded as the Campbell River Storm knocked off the Peninsula Panthers 3-0 in Game 7 of the best-of-7 series.  And with the Panthers loss, the Storm advanced to Round 2 where they will face the Saanich Braves, a Club that has been sitting on the sidelines waiting to see the outcome of the Panthers/Storm series.

Coach Tippett was subdued after the 60 minutes were in the books and was interviewed on the bus on the way back home. 

"We really couldn’t have asked for much more from our guys. The players really became a tight, focused group. We played for each other.  We pushed the play despite being down 1-0 until 6 minutes left in the game. We had to gamble a bit in the last few minutes - had some chances - but DeKok was a wall tonight — and for the last 3 games. Our goaltenders played great throughout the series. We forced their goaltending to be perfect and he was.  Tonight we had chances and he held us at bay. I thought if we could have got one in the second period tonight, we would have carried that momentum into the third.
 
Like any 7 game series there were ebbs and flows. McKillop made saves to give us a  chance to win.  I’ll remember the three miraculous saves DeKok made in the second OT period in game 5 to keep his team alive.  Braun hit the post dead center, and everyone in the building thought Sparrow's one-timer from the slot was going in the back of the net. They dodged that bullet and scored a deflected goal for the winner.
 
Every game in the series came down to the last few minutes or OT. No one scored more than 4 goals in a game. There were unlikely heroes and some extraordinary sub plots. For our young guys it sets the bar at another level. Two years ago they swept us 4 straight, scored 28 goals and never needed a post-game shower. Both teams played all out for all 7 games. It hurts tremendously to lose a game 7. It’s something players won’t ever forget. It will take a couple of days for the sting to go away. At that point we might understand how high we raised the level of our game - and the effort and sacrifice required to play with the top team in the league."

THe Storm opened the scoring 12:33 into the first frame on a Jackson Dyke marker with a helper coming from Darren Hards.  And after that, both the Panthers and Storm played a tight-checking game with both Storm netminder Aaron DeKok and Panthers' stopper Connor McKillop turning aside everything directed their way.

The Panthers were forced to open it up to try and get the equalizer late in the 3rd period and with just 5:45 left in the contest, Hards received a pass from Noah Fladager and walked in from the wall to beat McKillop for a 2-0 lead.  And with just 1:37 to go, Fladager added salt to the wound when he lifted a shot high over McKillop to send the crowd into a tizzy.  The final would end 3-0.

The Panthers' Braeden Hansen was the lone 20-year-old on the Club and his Junior Hockey run has come to an end.  Hansen was outstanding and influencial on the back end over the seven games and for a bounce here or there he would have extended his final kick at the can to Round 2 of the playoffs.

"Hansen is a quality kid and someone who I am proud to say was a Peninsula Panthers player," said Pete Zubersky after the game.  "I was fortunate to have bumped into him, he has made me a better person.  Braeden will be back next year as an Student Athletic Therapist with the Club and he will have an impact on the players with his leadership qualities.  Our Organization wish the youngster the best in the future, one that will be bright."

Zubersky continued to comment, "I want to congratulate the Campbell River Storm on a great series and on coming back from the brink when down 3-1 in this series.  They had so many kids who played fantastic hockey.  Slaney was a real leader all series long.  Wheeldon is a kid I have watched for a couple years and have seen his compete level jump out.  I could go through their entire lineup and comment; just a great series.  And I also want to congratulate our guys.  We knew going in that we would not win high-scoring games and it was our goal to keep the shots and the goals against and we did that.  We were in every game and I thought we should have won the Triple Overtime game to end the series when we had a power play opportunity in Double Overtime.  Braun hit the post, Diamond-Burchuk missed an open corner by inches and De Kok absolutely robbed Sparrow to save the game and series for the Storm.  Big crowds followed the series, they got their full value.  The officials were better than excellent over the 7 games.  This series did a lot for the League.  We tip out hats to the Storm on the win."

Zubersky will be putting out an 'Open Letter' on Thursday on the Panthers' website.