Panthers punch their ticket to the VIJHL Championship Finals with a come-from-behind 4-3 overtime win Saturday night in Mill Bay

March 19, 2022
Mill Bay, British Columbia

The Peninsula Panthers have faced more adversity than any Club deserves, but somehow they have managed to move to the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League Finals with a 4-3 series-ending win in Mill Bay Saturday night against the Kerry Park Islanders.  It was not easy.

The big and bad Islanders pounded away all series long but in the end, it would be the Cats who would prevail when they knocked off their foes in six games. On Saturday, with the Islanders looking to prolong the series for one more day and with their playoff lives at stake, they came out of the dressing room and immediately took control of the game.  And they were rewarded for their efforts only 5:14 into the opening stanza when 20-year-old Reid Fitzpatrick picked up a puck to the right of Panthers starter Ashton Lukan and drilled it over his glove hand into the back of the cage.  Midway through the period, the Panthers seemed to wake up just a bit and although the two teams exchanged some great opportunities, the 1-0 Islanders lead held moving into the intermission.

The Islanders had no thoughts of slowing down and burst from the gates once again in the 2nd period.  Captain and 20-year-old Matt Baird scored at the 3:18 mark and on the very next shift and only 37 seconds later, the speedy Mateo Sjoberg added another to open up a 3-0 Islanders lead.  Lukan was pulled in favour of Brady Kelly in an attempt to wake the Panthers players from a deep sleep more than it was for a sub-performance by Lukan and the move seemed to ignite the visitors.  And at the 12:25 mark while on the power play, Kyle Brown got his squad on the board when he ripped a shot past Islanders goaltender Dryden Demelo to bring the Panthers within two goals at 3-1.  Kelly and Demelo made some key stops over the next several minutes and with the Panthers still down by a couple markers going into the 3rd stanza, the Club realized that it was going to be a big hill to climb.

A lot of the heavy lifting occurred only 57 seconds in when Riley Braun forced an ill-advised clearing attempt from deep inside the Islanders zone.  Brown picked up the puck on the wall near the blueline to the left of Demelo and romped down by the hash marks before finding Logan Speirs all alone to the right of Demelo and only 14 feet out.  Speirs gobbled up the Brown pass and drilled a shot past Demelo to make it a one-goal affair.  And Speirs was not done.  With just over six minutes remaining in the game, the puck was dumped deep behind the Islanders net.  Speirs swooped in and was first to the disk and his wrap-around shot evaded Demelo and suddenly the game was knotted at three and it appeared as though the next goal would win.  That proved to be the case.

Once again both goaltenders held through Regulation time but 6:10 into the first overtime period, Riley Braun and Logan Speirs got the puck deep into the Islanders end to the left of Demelo and dogmatically worked for the turnover.  Speirs moved the disk to Braun behind the goal line and he found Brown 13 feet out and all alone in the slot.  Brown snapped the puck past Demelo for his second tally of the evening but more importantly, the goal ended the series and pushed the Cats to the Island Championship Finals.

Many Islanders sagged to the ice in disappointment while the other side of the spectrum saw the Panthers players spill over the wall and onto the ice to join Brown and his mates who were already in the process of celebrating near centre ice.  The two foes shook hands and after a fireside chat in the Panthers dressing room, the visitors quietly departed the rink and headed South down the Malahat on a warm March evening.

"I cannot say how proud we are of our group at this point," quipped Panthers GM Pete Zubersky.  We have had to deal with so much this season and so far have been able to compartamentalize when the puck is dropped each night.  Grant Gilbertson and his family are in our thoughts every step of the way.  Kyle Brown came in here only a couple days after Grant's accident and I thought at the time how tough a situation that was.  He was the Predators' Captain and really struggled for 10-12 games before things started to click for him and with our team.  If one less guy gave one less percent, we would have lost on Saturday night.  Our best players were our best players.  Kelly came in after not playing for the past three weeks and was the story of the game in my mind.  He was simply outstanding and gave us a chance to win in overtime tonight.  But now none of this matters, it's all in the rear view mirror.  We start with a clean slate with the Oceanside Generals and the only thing that matters is the next game.  We will have time to enjoy this result when our season is in the books."

Kelly and Fitzpatrick were named Players of the Game for their respective squads with Kelly stopping all 36 shots the Islanders shot at him upon his arrival in the contest.

The series schedule is now set with the Generals holding home-ice advantage and is as follows:

GM1  Wednesday, March 23 at 7:00 pm @ Oceanside
GM2  Friday, March 25 at 7:30 pm @ Peninsula
GM3  Sunday, March 27 at 7:00 pm @ Oceanside
GM4  Monday, March 28 at 7:30 pm @ Peninsula
GM5  Wednesday, March 30 at 7:00 pm @ Oceanside (if needed)
GM6  Friday, April 1 at 7:30 pm @ Peninsula (if needed)
GM7  Monday, April 4 at 7:00 pm @ Oceanside (if needed)

The Panthers Organization are asking fans to arrive early for the Game 2 Friday night as a large crowd is expected.