Panthers take it on the chin Sunday afternoon in Esquimalt

October 25th
Esquimalt, British Columbia

Riley Braun gathered in a pass on the half wall with a little over six minutes remaining in the 1st period Sunday afternoon.  His Peninsula Panthers were trailing at the time 2-0 to the Victoria Cougars in an afternoon game at the Archie Browning Arena in Esquimalt.  Braun moved the puck back to the point to Reid Fryer and the rookie rear guard blasted a puck that deflected off Denver Maloney who was situated in the high slot.  The puck zipped past Cougars' starter Brett Anderson to bring the Panthers within a goal, but it did not seem to stem the tide.  The Cougars potted a couple more markers past Panthers' starter Connor Svienson before the buzzer sounded to end the 1st frame to give the home side a commanding 4-1 lead.  The Cougars would add to the lead in the 2nd stanza moving the lead to 6-1.

Just 22 clicks into the final 20 minutes, Logan Speirs and Riley Braun did some heavy work behind the Cougars' net and then Speirs moved the puck to Tanner Wort who was settled just two feet outside the crease.  And the Panthers Captain made no mistake banging it past Anderson.  The marker would be the final one for the Panthers on the afternoon.  The Cougars did add another after a Panthers' forward was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct after whining to the official about a call he felt was missed.  And the Cougars capitalized within seconds of the forward going to the sin bin.

Tippett on Sunday's affair:
"Regardless of the score today, we had more disappointments than positives. You win as a team and lose as a team and it is important to single out the outstanding effort of our young defenseman. (Evan) Crawford has missed some time and has some catching up to do but he got better as the game went on. We could not have asked for anything more from (Reid) Fryer, (Mason) McNeill and (Theodore) St-Denis. We played with only four defenseman all weekend and yet they were the ones still laying out checks in the last minute this afternoon.
 
(Connor) Svienson was fighting the puck, likely wanting a couple of the goals back but goaltending was not the issue today.  
 
We have forwards getting back into non-contact shinny hockey mode and they are continually capturing the silver medal in the pursuit of the puck, playing on their own agenda with little or no structure.  This is allowing the Cougars to play against five groups of one versus one group of five. We had little or no desire to compete in tough areas. We had whining to the referees for calls, taking retaliation penalties, taking short cuts, not ready for passes, shots right at the goalie's chest, blowing the zone early, zero communication. (Riley) Braun played his usual consistent game and likely had more checks than the rest of the forwards put together. Maloney and Speirs had their moments but they can, should, and will be better. Lyon did his best playing a bit banged up. Banks had some flashes and earned some extra shifts especially with his effort on more than one occasion on the back check. We are eight games in and have 6 of our 15 forwards with a goal.
 
The defense get the day off tomorrow.  Practice will be all competition and offensive skills/tactics for the forwards, lots of shots for the goalies."

The two Clubs will be back in Esquimalt next Thursday night before wrapping up their 10-game Cohort Series on Friday evening back on the Peninsula.