Former Panthers David Edgar leads Braves to 3-2 win over Cats

Monday, February 17th, 2020
North Saanich, British Columbia

The Peninsula Panthers regular season is rapidly coming to a close but they were scratched one more time by the visiting Saanich Braves.  The Braves scored the first two markers of the contest on Monday afternoon at the Panorama Recreation Centre and then hung on the rest of the way as goaltender Robert Michetti held the fort to post a 3-2 win.  The game was played in front of a large Family Day crowd.

Evan Abgrall opened the scoring at the 9:00 mark of the 1st stanza with helpers on the play going to former Panthers Joe Stafford-Veale and David Edgar.  And Edgar beat Panthers starter Andrew Rocha six minutes later to give his Braves squad the 2-0 lead.  But Drew Couglin got the Panthers on the scoreboard when at the 17:27 mark he moved in on Michetti and ripped a shot past the startled netminder.  Luc Pelletier and Mackenzie Benn-Wipp were awarded assists on the goal.

There was no scoring in the middle frame and in the final 20 minutes the teams exchanged a pair of goals, albeit, the Braves tally came with a large amount of controversy.  At the 1:25 mark Braves Dayton Clarke was whistled for a two minute minor for Head Contact and the call came with the automatic 10-minute misconduct.  It was curious to most fans that another player from the Braves did not jump in the penalty box with Clarke but rather the puck was dropped and the Panthers went to the power play.  There were no whistles throughout the power play and as the two-minute penalty wound down Clarke was clearly unsure what he was suppose to do.  He jumped onto the ice however quickly retreated back to the box before Edgar jumped over the boards at his bench to join the play as the 5th Braves player.  And Edgar went on to score the winning goal on the play only seconds later.  The Panthers vehemently protested the call however this fell on deaf ears and the goal was allowed to stand.  At the 17:56 mark Pelletier scored with assists to Coughlin and Benger to make it a 3-2 game.  The fans were clearly into the game and the barn became loud.  And at the 19:09 mark with Rocha on the bench for the extra attacker Braves Jarrod Lucoe was whistled for a cross-checking penalty putting the Panthers on a 6-on-4 man advantage.  But Michetti would not break and the Braves romped off their bench and to their stopper when the final buzzer sounded.

Panthers Bench Boss Brad Tippett had some comments after the game and before leaving for home.

"We have trouble playing against Sannich’s four goaltender system.  Territorially we have dominated but they clog up the front of the net and make it tough to get shots through. Hard to get rebounds simply because they have numbers in front of net area. We had great chances that Michetti stopped or we just weren’t sharp in our finish. Defensively we made just enough mistakes that the “no puck luck“ insured we couldn’t outscore those mistakes. Frustrating day all round."


Once the game was in the books the Panthers held an on-ice draw where they gifted the jerseys off their backs to Penninsula Minor Hockey Players and fans alike.  Although the score was not what the fans and the home hockey club were looking for on the afternoon, there were certainly a lot of smiles leaving the building.

The Peninsula Panthers Hockey Club take this opportunity to thank both the Mary Winspear Centre and the Peninsula Co-op for their contributions to the game today.  Both are local and both are fantastic Community Partners with the Panthers and without them the fans at the games could not have any where near the experience they enjoyed today and at each home game.  Thank you!

The Panthers will take on the Westshore Wolves on Friday night and this will close the book on their regular season.  And they will open up at home for Game 1 in the Best-of-7 series against the same Wolves squad next Monday night at 7:30 pm.