January 10, 2020
North Saanich, B.C.
The Peninsula Panthers have had themselves a busy few days. After knocking off the VIJHL leading Victoria Cougars 4-1 in Esquimalt on Thursday night, they signed 20-year-old goaltender Andrew Rocha who hails from Whitefish, Ontario. Rocha had played the past three years in Junior A in Ontario and will report to the Club this coming Monday evening when the Team is scheduled to practice. And the Club followed this flurry of activity up with a 5-3 win Friday night in the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre over the North Division-leading Oceanside Generals.
VIJHL leading scorer Tanner Wort scored the lone marker of the 1st stanza for the Cats while shorthanded at the 18:04 mark. Josh Lingard ripped the puck the length of the ice to relieve some of the Generals power play pressure and the disk landed on the stick of the visitor's goaltender, James Brendeland. Wort moved in on Brendeland and it appeared as though the Generals target tried to hit Wort with his left shoulder. But Wort would have none of it and instead focused on the puck which Brendeland had left to the side of the net. The sniper tapped it past the surprised netminder and into the open cage, the only two people in the building who knew it was in were Wort and Brendeland. Wort raised his hands in the air to celebrate however, those in attendance thought he was trying to draw the attention of the referee to indicate he had been interfered with. It took most a few seconds to realize that the Panthers had taken a 1-0 lead, a lead that they would never relinquish over the 60 minutes.
Luc Pelletier for the Panthers and Liam Moody for the Generals exchanged goals in the middle stanza and as the two squads skated to the room for the 2nd intermission, the game was clearly up for grabs. Pelletier's marker came on the power play midway though the period with Thomas Spink and Alexander Benger drawing assists.
Both teams exchanged some chances in the final period and then Wort hit paydirt for his 2nd of the night at the 6:29 mark on helpers from Lingard and Riley Braun. And then four minutes later it was Braun's turn to score, this time the assist going to Wort. The Generals' Dawson Heathcote scored a power play goal of his own at the 14:38 mark to make it a 4-2 game and then with only 38 seconds remaining, newly acquired forward Isaac Leik beat Panthers' netminder Connor McKillop to make it interesting at 4-3. But on the ensuing faceoff, the Generals elected to keep Brendeland on the bench for the extra attacker and Panthers' Logan Speirs made them pay. Speirs controlled the puck on the draw and sent it 100 feet down the ice into the empty net to seal it. The insurance marker came only 4 seconds after Leik's tally.
Wort and Heathcote were named Game Stars. McKillop blocked 23 of 26 shots and collected his VIJHL-leading 22nd win while Brendeland was tagged with the loss and stopped 31 if 35 shots along the way.
A tired Head Coach Brad Tippett gave some comments after the 60 minutes were in the books and then indicated he was heading home for some solid bed time.
"Our two tough practices and some video seem to have paid off. I thought we took a big step towards playoff-style hockey. A record of 7-3 in the last ten games vs teams with better than a .500 record is a real achievement to build on. Defensively we were much better, goaltending better, shot blocking and back checking better. Things that don’t show up on the scoresheet. We have some work to do this week."
Tippett then spoke about his acquisition in goal, Andrew Rocha.
"There are a number of teams in the hunt and it looks like playoff matchups are beginning to emerge. It’s one of those years where most teams in our league seem to be comfortable with their team. The rules and respect for educational commitments dampen the chances of a multi-player blockbuster “hockey” deal. If you are going to add the player, he will likely have to come from outside the league. In our case just working the phones brought Andrew’s name up. He had become available because a QMJHL team had returned a goalie to his team. We had contact with numerous scouts and coaches in Ontario about him. We came to the conclusion the opportunity to have two seasoned veterans in the crease - Rocha and McKillop - was something we couldn’t pass up. We are happy with what we have heard and Monday we will get to see the whites of his eyes."
Tippett continued, "Trade deadline - we went into January with great flexibility with basically 3 open cards. We will get a chance to see Andrew Rocha in the net. We have something else in the wings and hope to have it finalized in the next three or four days. The best compliment we had was no one was phoning us looking for one of our guys. I’d much rather be a buyer than a seller."
The Panthers released Goaltender Connor Cheyne after the win on Thursday and want to wish him all the best in the future. Although Cheyne was only around for a month, he immediately fit in well with the group."
The Panthers have released power forward Matthew Sparrow who decided that he wanted to head to El Paso, Texas to finish off his Junior Career.
"I was really quite shocked when I heard this news," explained GM Pete Zubersky. "But a player can decide what he wants to do and that is exactly what Matt did. It seems like a peculiar time to leave his mates but it is what it is. He has been out of the lineup for a couple months now and now we have some closure. Our guys will step up, there is a lot of character in our room. We will work at replacing him and hopefully will have something to announce sooner rather than later."
The Panthers will have the weekend off before they get back to business on Monday evening at practice. They will host the Saanich Braves on Friday night but most around the Organization believe there will be some news out well before the next game. The puck drops at 7:30 pm.
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