Panthers win comeback Overtime 2-1 squeaker over the Buccaneers

The Peninsula Panthers came out of the chutes and appeared ready to play shortly after 7:30 pm in the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre.  But Nanaimo Buccaneers' goaltender Austin Dendl had other ideas and he stopped every single puck - and there were a lot of them - directed his way until with just 70 seconds remaining in the contest, sniper Tanner Wort finally figured out the puzzle.

The "Cats" pushed hard in the opening frame and although they soundly outplayed and outshot the visitors by a 14-4 count, they simply could not solve Dendl.  And it would be defenceman Ben Coughlan who would beat Panthers' stopper Connor McKillop to open the scoring at the 16:22 mark of the middle stanza and it appeared as though that single goal might just hold up to be the winner.

Dendl continued to shine, although McKillop was keeping his Club alive with several key saves of his own.  And then it was "Wort time."  With just a little over a minute left in the contest and the Bucs clinging to the 1-0 lead, a battle ensued at the Panthers' end in the corner to the left of McKillop.  Panthers' Captain Thomas Spink won the protracted battle and moved the puck up the wall to Matt Sparrow who darted out of his own end, through the neutral zone and into the Bucs' end to the right of Dendl.  He then fed a crafty pass to Wort, who was coming right down Main Street, and the sniper with silky soft mitts slipped it along the ice past Dendl to knot the game at 1-1.  And it looked like the game was going to move into overtime however with about 30 seconds left, a puck got past Skyler Diamond-Burchuk and that sent a Bucs' forward in on a breakaway from his side of centre.  McKillop was huge and made the save and saved his squad in the process.  

The Panthers and Bucs headed into the 7-minute overtime frame playing 3-on-3 hockey.  And the Panthers dominated the extra stanza having several outstanding opportunites to end it, however Dendl continued to keep the biscuit out of the basket.  With just under three minutes remaining in the extra frame, Wort, Riley Braun and Diamond-Burchuk went out to take a face-off in the Bucs' end and were looking to do some damage.  Wort cleanly won the draw to Braun, who was close to the wall, and he in turn passed it back to the point to Diamond-Burchuck.  The skilled defenceman skated towards Braun and it looked like he would drop it to him on a high reverse - at least that is what everyone in the rink thought would happen.  Diamond-Burchuck faked the drop pass just above the circles and when all the traffic went with Braun, Diamond-Burchuk had an unobstructed path to the net.  He looked like he was going to come across the top of the crease but once Dendl started to move with him, he stopped and then tucked the puck into the wide open net.  The entire Panthers' bench spilled over the boards and onto the ice joining Diamond-Burchuk, Wort and Braun who had already begun to celebrate.

Head Coach Brad Tippett on the overtime win.  "Going in, we knew this was going to be a battle. Our start was good. Stingy on defence and we were getting good chances - but not great chances simply because we were trying to make the extra perfect pass. The Bucs played a perfect road game. Dendl was superb although he had clear vision of most shots. Late in the 2nd, we were soft on coverage and they scored on their best chance. The officials decided to call a very tight game and I thought the volume of penalties called hurt us more - especially losing Josh Lingard. It was hard to get any sustained flow and any momentum we built up was punctuated with a PP or a PK situation."

In the end, Dendl blocked 35 of 37 shots and was named the Buccaneers' Player of the Game.  McKillop stopped 25 of 26 Bucs' shots.  Diamond-Burchuck was selected as the Panthers' Player of the Game after potting the winner.

The Club will be up in Mill Bay on Sunday afternoon to take on the Kerry Park Islanders.  They will travel to Nanaimo next Thursday night for another meeting with the Buccaneers before coming back home next Friday night to host the visiting Campbell River Storm.  The puck drops at 7:30 pm.