It has been a very rushed week for both 20-year-old Goaltender Andrew Rocha and 19-year-old Forward Aiden Craig-Steele and it continued right up until 7:00 pm when the Peninsula Panthers went out onto the ice for the pre-game warmups. Only 10 minutes earlier both players who had just been acquired earlier this week, were standing outside their dressing room getting headshot photos from Gordon Lee. Rocha put on his shirt and tie and put on his blue suit jacket as well but had a pair of sweat pants and some runners on the bottom half. And after he had finished with his photo, Craig-Steele used Rocha's shirt and tie for his photo as his dress clothes were packed away. It was a scenario that had a bit of humour to it, there was no doubt about it.
The two stepped onto the ice and it was a place they were accustomed to. Rocha hails from Whitefish, Ontario which is just outside of Sudbury and he arrived just in time for Monday's practice. Craig-Steele is attending classes at the University of Victoria and was just contacted ten days earlier by the Panthers looking to add him to their roster. Craig-Steele comes from Fort St. John, B.C. and it was obvious to most of the management around the Club that the World was spinning quickly for the young man.
The 15-minute warmup ended and the ice was greased and then it was back to business for the Club. They were welcoming in the visiting Saanich Braves Hockey Club, a team that has been playing some good hockey as of late and a team that was coming in looking for a win. It would not happen.
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#18 Aiden Craig-Steele getting active around the Braves net in 1st period action Friday night in VIJHL action). Photo by Gordon Lee.
Panthers' sniper Tanner Wort opened the scoring on the night when at the 3:04 mark he beat Braves' netminder Connor Svienson. Stefan Grunert, who returned to the lineup after missing the past several weeks with an injury, kept a puck in at the left point and bounced it off the end wall to the right of the Braves' Cage. Riley Braun collected the disk and sent it onto the stick of Wort and he wasted absolutely no time blowing one past Svienson. It would be the only marker of the initial stanza, although Rocha made a couple key saves early to get both himself and his new squad into the game.
Josh Lingard took a feed from Craig-Steele, beat a couple Braves players and then ripped a shot past the Braves netminder at the 3:49 mark of the 2nd period to open the lead to 2-0. Drew Coughlin collected the 2nd helper on the play. Lingard was playing on the back end for the Panthers for the first time this season due to an injury to Eric Horricks and with Skyler Diamond-Burchuk away competing in a Red Bull Crashed Ice competition in Minnesota. Denver Maloney scored the 3rd Panthers marker unassisted at the 7:26 mark and then four minutes later, Braun opened up a four-goal lead when he scored on assists from Wort and Logan Speirs. The Braun tally would chase Svienson to the showers in favour of Robert Michetti.
The Panthers went to the power play late in the 2nd frame however, gave up a breakaway opportunity to which Rocha was up to the task. And then on the same man-advantage, the Panthers gave up a 2nd breakaway, this time to former Panthers' forward Jarrod Lucoe. Lucoe made a crafty move in close to beat Rocha, it would be the final goal of the night.
The Braves carried much of the play in the 3rd period however to no avail. Rocha blocked 25 of 26 shots in collecting his 1st win in as many tries while the combination of Svienson and Michetti were good on 27 of 31 shots. Braves' Dayton Clarke played a physical game for 60 minutes and was named the Braves player of the game, while Rocha picked up the selection for the Panthers.
Head Coach Brad Tippett liked a lot of what he saw over the 60 minutes but felt there were some mistakes that he wants his Club to clean up as the playoffs draw near.
"The first 35 minutes were text book Panthers hockey - hustle, smart decisions with the puck and almost perfect structure. I thought it was one the most efficient stretches of play this season. As the game wore on, I thought we let off the gas a bit and took some unnecessary chances. We have to clean up these little mistakes before the playoffs. Although he needs a couple of weeks to get completely up to game speed, Aiden Craig-Steele showed some good things tonight. With one extra forward now on the roster, good decisions will keep a player in the lineup and bad ones will earn a healthy scratch. Rocha showed everything we had heard about him and gives us two solid netminders down the stretch. Hopefully we can get another great effort Saturday in Kerry Park."
The Club will travel to Mill Bay Saturday night to take on a Kerry Park Islanders team who dropped a 5-1 decision in Campbell River on Friday evening. They will then be back to the confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre next Friday when they welcome in the same Islanders squad.
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