Panthers knocked off 2-1 by Cougars in a Barnburner in Esquimalt

October 15, 2020
Esquimalt, British Columbia

On a warm Thursday evening, the Peninsula Panthers ventured into the confines of the Archie Browning Arena in Esquimalt for the 5th consecutive game with the Victoria Cougars.  The two Clubs have played some intense hockey which at times feels like a 7-game playoff series in March rather than October and, as expected, this evening was no different.

The Panthers were limping just slightly missing their #1 Centreman in Josh Lingard after he was banged up last Friday night in a game at the Panorama Recreation Centre.  Lingard is not expected to be back tomorrow night when the two teams head out to North Saanich for the 6th consecutive game between the two with another four more to follow.  And missing from the back end was Eric Horricks who had pulled up lame in practice this week as well as the impactful rookie, Evan Crawford.  Crawford became involved in an incident at the end of the game on Friday and after he retaliated for a hit which he felt was high, he would be the one who was sent off with a Major penalty.  The VIJHL came down with a 3-game suspension earlier this week which will put the rearguard on the shelf until next Friday night.  And on Thursday night,stalwart rookie defenceman Griffin Gilmour was the latest to be forced to the sidelines when he suffered a dislocated shoulder early in the 2nd frame.

Ryan Strange opened the scoring 6:13 into the opening frame and that would hold up until just 5:49 was left in the game.  Spencer Golden made it 2-0 on somewhat of a miscue by a young Panthers' defenceman.  The puck was dumped deep into the Panthers' end, but Cougars' Bryce Irwin seemed to want the puck just a bit more than the Panthers' defender and gained control behind the net of Panthers' starter Connor Svienson.  Irwin fed Golden out front as he dashed in from the point and he one-timed it past a startled Sveinson.  But the fork was not in the 'Cats' from the Peninsula and only 56 seconds later, Logan Speirs would beat Cougars' netminder Jonah Chambers to get his Team right back in the game.  Speirs brought the puck to the net after an offensive zone face-off and Chambers seemed to have things in control after thwarting Speirs.  But as he went to cover the disk, it bumped just several inches over the goal line - enough of a distance to give the visitors some hope.  The Panthers tested Chambers late, but to no avail and the Cougars would hang on for the 2-1 win.

Chambers blocked 29 of 30 Panthers shots in picking up the win while Svienson stopped 26 of 28 attempts and was tagged for the loss.

Bench Boss Brad Tippett on tonight's game:
"As a coaching staff this was one of those games where you really need to drill down to evaluate our performance.  OK - the headline says we lost 2-1. The real story of the game is we were dressing 4 young defencemen who collectively have less than a dozen games of VIJHL experience.  We lost one of them mid-game, and ended up outshooting the Cougars in the game after being down 9-0 on the shot clock early on.  And we were one shot away in the last minute of tying it up. No team in the league is deep enough to not be affected by a missing player in Josh Lingard. We blocked more shots tonight than in our other four games combined. Our back-checking was a huge improvement over last Friday. A lot of our young guys grew up a lot tonight. Our efforts tonight in addition to our renewed attention to detail will win us a lot of games. Tonight the two points was not what mattered."

The two feline foes will be back at it in North Saanich at the Panorama Recreation Centre on Friday night at 7:30 pm.