Lingard stars in Panthers 4-3 squeeker Friday night

North Saanich, B.C.
September 12, 2019

The Peninsula Panthers are a perfect three wins in three tries to open the season, but to be clear,,Friday night was not easy!  As the local and faithful fans filtered out of the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre, they were breathing a collective sigh of relief as the visiting Comox Valley Glacier Kings gave their squad everything they could handle and took them right to the final minute of the game before it was eventually salted away.  And with a Campbell River Storm 4-3 home win over the visiting Nanaimo Buccaneers on Friday, the stage has been set for the remaining two undefeated Clubs to go toe-to-toe Saturday evening up in Campbell River.  Both the Panthers and Storm sit at a perfect 3-0 and so something will have to give when the two squads hit the ice at 7:30 pm.  Going into Friday night, the Victoria Cougars also had an unblemished record however they were bounced 3-2 up in Oceanside by the Generals.

Chris Combiadakis made his first start of the current campaign and collected the win blocking 17 of 20 shots directed his way while the Panthers peppered Glacier Kings starter Brandan Maidu with 42 shots and collared him with the loss.  He made 38 stops on the night.

The line of Josh Lingard, Tanner Wort and Riley Braun stole the show on the evening.  Lingard had two goals and a helper, Wort had a goal and two helpers while Braun had two helpers over the 60 minutes of play.  "Lucky" Luc Pelletier chipped in with a goal which was assisted on by Skyler Diamond-Burchuk and Eric Horricks.

The Panthers held period leads of 1-0 and 4-1 but it was the Glacier Kings who seemed to want the game a bit more in the final stanza and tallied twice to get the game to within a single marker.  And in the final seconds of the game, it looked like they might get the equalizer however a late shot hit the outside of the net and that would be all she wrote.

Scoring for the Glacier Kings were Grady Robertson, Jordan Neufeld and Tanner Roberts. 

Naidu was named the player of the game for the Glacier Kings while Lingard took the honours for the Panthers.

After playing the Storm tomorrow evening the Panthers will be back home next Friday night when the Northern Division Nanaimo Buccaneers will pay their first visit of the early season.  And for the "Cats" it will be important to protect home ice and make the local barn the toughest location for visitors in the VIJHL.  The puck drops at 7:30 pm.
.