Panthers go on Christmas break just a bit too early! Wolves down Panthers 3-2

December 11, 2019
Colwood, B.C.

It looks like Christmas came early for the Peninsula Panthers on Wednesday night.  The rest of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League and certainly the Westshore Wolves had not yet received the memo as of Wednesday evening.  The Panthers rolled into the Q-Centre on Wednesday to face the Westshore Wolves, the front end of the home-and-home series between the two squads.  The Wolves were hungry, the Panthers were not.  And the lackluster effort cost them dearly as they were downed 3-2 by the home side.  The visitors played the final 20 minutes for keeps but it was simply too little, too late.  The Wolves clearly deserved the two points.

Coach Tippett was not at a loss for words after the shabby effort.  "There were far too many passengers and not enough paddlers. Lots of guys were just along for the ride tonight.  We had an emotional win Sunday and we have three more games coming in the next seven days.  A lot of the players are writing exams so we decided to go with lighter practices this week hoping to save energy and focus for the games. Obviously that didn’t work as the first 40 minutes made a legitimate challenge for the most uninspired effort of the season to date.  We took one hooking and four tripping penalties. Those almost always occur when you are not getting to pucks first, when you are lazy and when you are chasing. Those penalties usually come back to bite you, and they did. We had zero body contact penalties.  Speirs, Pelletier and Maloney were our best line and Connor Cheyne between the pipes kept us in the game . We will need a 100% turnaround if we want any success before the Christmas break."

The lack of effort was evident in the 15-minute warmup and then continued into the first stanza.  And the funk lasted until the drop of the puck for the final period.  On the other hand, the Wolves looked crisp and were jumping after pucks and were full value for the win.  

Chase Klassen, Noah Taron and Tyler Chyzowski with the winner were the marksmen for the Wolves, while Josh Lingard and Luc Pelletier replied for the Panthers.  Cheyne absorbed the loss blocking 34 of 37 shots while Wolves' netminder Dalan Marleau was more than just solid, stopping 37 of 39 pucks in the win.  Each goaltender was named the Player of the Game for their respective Clubs.

The Wolves will be looking for more blood on Friday night when they head to the Peninsula for a 7:30 pm start.  And the Panthers might want to wait just a little bit longer before they decide to cut up the turkey and mash the potatoes.  It's not quite December 25th and most likely Coach Tippett will explain that once again before their last home game in 2019.