Storm one shot better in 4-3 win over Panthers

The Peninsula Panthers will go on their Christmas Break on Sunday afternoon after a date with the Saanich Braves but had a bit of work to do before heading off for a well-deserved 12-day rest.  And Friday night, the Club arrived in Campbell River to face the suddenly red hot Storm squad who had won seven in a row going into the contest.  They would make it eight with a hard-fought 4-3 win over the Cats.

It was all Storm in the opening stanza and they were rewarded with a well-deserved 2-0 lead going into the intermission on the strength of goals by Owen Christensen and Cody Savey.  Connor McKillop made the start between the pipes for the visitors while Aaron de Kok was guarding the net for the Storm.  Both starters made key saves however, McKillop was clearly the busier of the two over the opening 20 minutes of play.

The Panthers seemed to regroup and Riley Braun got them right back into the contest only 45 seconds into the middle stanza.  Tanner Wort battled with a Storm player in the corner to the right of de Kok and a Storm forward came out with the disk.  Braun deftly lifted his stick just a moment before snapping a shot past de Kok to make it a one-goal game.  Two minutes later, the Cats dumped in the puck and de Kok went behind the net to set it up for his defenceman.  Panthers' speedy forward Jack Taylor stripped the goaltender of the puck and shoveled in front to Lucas Thomson-Fiddes who slammed the puck into the vacated cage.  It looked like the two squads would head to the 2nd intermission with the score knotted at 2-2 but with only 15 ticks remaining, a hard forecheck by the Storm turned the puck over deep in the Panthers' end and Riley Billy deposited it behind McKillop for the 3-2 lead.

The two teams exchanged a single marker in the 3rd period.  Wort hustled in to the Storm end on the forecheck at the 10:38 mark and battled with a Storm defender for the puck on the wall behind de Kok.  Braun joined Wort and the puck eventually ended up on Wort's stick.  He threw the puck in front and it bounced off the chest of mate Logan Speirs and then found its way to the right point and onto the stick of defenceman Matt Seale.  Seale snapped a shot from just inside the blueline and with the traffic in front, de Kok was not able to get a clear view of the shot and it beat him on the glove side to again knot the game.  It set the stage for the winner on the power play by Pearce Messer at the 12:47 mark.  The Storm gained the offensive zone on a play that might just have been offside but the play continued for the next ten seconds in zone.  And eventually Messer found himself alone to the right of McKillop and when the puck arrived on his stick from defenceman Kyle Jennings, he did not disappoint the Campbell River fans pounding home the winner.  The Panthers pushed late but could not solve de Kok.

Head Coach Brad Tippett commented on the game.  "A few of our younger guys got an introduction to a level of intensity they may not have experienced before. Things happen much quicker - the time to read, react and execute is much shorter. Early on, we turned over too many pucks simply because we were rushed to fully execute. We got better as the game went along. We had all the momentum and failed to get the puck deep in the last minute of the 2nd and gave up a late goal. We fought our way back to tie it up. I was not at all happy about the winning goal - although that was not entirely created by anything we did. Hopefully we can learn from this setback." 

The Panthers will be in Saanich for a 1:30 pm afternoon game on Sunday and will then be idle until January 3rd when they will welcome in the visiting Victoria Cougars.