Panthers drop Game 1 against Cougars 5-2

March 8th, 2020
Esquimalt, British Columbia

The Peninsula Panthers came into the Archie Browning Arena on Sunday afternoon fresh off their five-game series win over the Westshore Wolves.  The Wolves were sent packing Friday night, a Club that had 26 wins on the season.  But the Cougars are a different animal coming off a huge 41 win regular season before sweeping a determined Saanich Braves Team in the 1st Round of the VIJHL playoffs.  The Panthers came into the contest knowing that nothing short of a full 60-minute effort from all 20 players would be enough to turn the tide and that effort was simply not present after the first 25 minutes of the game.

The Panthers dominated the Cougars in the first frame and were deserving of the 1-0 lead they held going into the intermission after 20 minutes were in the books.  Skyler Diamond-Burchuk was the lone marksman while on the power play.  Josh Lingard at the right point and Diamond-Burchuk on the half wall to the left of Cougars' starter Jonah Chambers played pass and catch two or three times before Diamond-Burchuk walked in and beat Chambers to the long side.  Andrew Rocha grabbed the start for the Panthers and looked solid through the first period, albeit, he was not very busy.

And the Panthers did not stop the onslaught to start the 2nd stanza and it paid off at the 5:37 mark when they hit paydirt once again.  Drew Coughlin cleanly won a draw back to the point and onto the stick of Captain Thomas Spink.  Spink let a hard shot go approximately three feet off the ice and Chambers appeared to be in position to make a routine save.  But Coughlin skated into the shot lane after winning the face-off and tipped the puck past Chambers to give his squad a 2-0 lead.  The Panthers celebrated the Coughlin tally but perhaps they should have celebrated a little bit longer and a little bit harder because the party had come to an end.  The visitors looked like they thought the game was over and quit skating and quit hitting while the Cougars clearly had a different idea.  They began to control the game and were rewarded when Spencer Golden and Zach Guerra knotted the game at 2-2 before the 2nd period buzzer sounded.

It was all Cougars on the scoreboard in the final period.  Evan Easton and Davis Frank each put a notch into their belt and then with Rocha on the bench for the extra attacker, Golden got his 2nd of the afternoon with only 48 seconds remaining into the empty net.

Mackenzie Benn-Wipp was nailed with a two-minute minor penalty for a checking from behind with only 17 seconds left and he will be sitting on the sidelines for Game 2 as the infraction occured in the final 10 minutes of the game.

Rocha blocked 38 of 42 shots and was collared for the loss while Chambers blocked 20 of 22 Panthers shots in collecting the series opening win.

"I thought we really came out with some pop to start the game and then just took our foot off the gas once the scoreboard moved to 2-0," quipped GM Pete Zubersky.  "There were some kids that put in a real solid effort and others that were just hoping to win without getting their uniform soiled.  It's March, those games were over in February.  Our best guys have to be our best guys or we will not be successful.  It's the same on every team at every level, when the best guys play hard it carries through the team.  They had an advantage going into this game.  They finished off the Braves on Tuesday night and had some practice time to work on things that we do.  We will have a couple practices on Monday and Tuesday and will be back here on Wednesday night.  I would expect that we will see a different effort or this will be a quick series.  It's March.  There are no freebies anymore."

The Panthers will be looking to even up the series on Wednesday and will be back at home Friday and Saturday night with the puck set to drop at 7:30 pm for both games.