April 7, 2022
Ladner, British Columbia
Stage fright appeared to play a major part in the 6-2 drubbing the Peninsula Panthers were dealt at the hands of the Langley Trappers. The Cats were strong from the opening faceoff and carried the play for a large portion of the affair however, everything the Trappers threw at the Panthers' net seemed to find a hole, while Tappers' goaltender Caedon Bellmann was more than just up to the task. And this combination was simply too much to overcome for the Club from the Saanich Peninsula.
"I really quite loved our first several minutes of the game and for that matter, the effort by the entire squad," said Panthers General Manager Pete Zubersky. "But several of our guys, including both of our goaltenders, just had too many butterflies and that put a mountain in front of us that was just too high to climb."
The Cats outshot and outchanced the Trappers throughout the game and played much, much better than the 6-2 score indicated. They outshot the Trappers 35-30, but the combination of goaltenders in Brady Kelly and Ashton Lukan for the locals were not as good as Bellmann who went the distance for the winners. Kelly allowed two goals on 7 shots before he was lifted only 5:37 into the game and with his squad already down 2-0. And Lukan did not fair much better allowing three more markers in the remaining 14:23 of the 1st frame. The Panthers' lone goal came off the stick of Payton Braun on the power play and as the Panthers skated to the dressing room down 5-1 after 20 minutes of Cyclone Taylor Cup action was in the books, there was certainly a look of bewilderment on their collective faces.
"It was not a time to yell and scream between periods," quipped Zubersky. "It was the pink elephant in the room and we talked about just that. Our two goaltenders had wide eyes, it was the first time they had played in a game of this magnitude and it certainly showed. There were other guys in the same boat as well but when you are playing between the pipes, every single mistake shows up on the scoreboard. We talked about not quitting and how great our season has been and that there was a lot of tournament left to play. And I knew our guys would respond."
And respond they did. The Club absolutely dominated the middle stanza throwing 17 shots on the Langely netminder, many of them from point blank range. Kelly was sent back in between the pipes and with his nerves settled down, he played some of the type of hockey he had played in the post-season allowing the Club to advance to the Provincial Championship. Speirs scored a late 2nd period power play marker to get the score to 5-2 but it proved to simply be too little, too late.
"In a way, I just want to flush the result down the toilet and start fresh on Friday when we face a really good Delta Ice Hawks team, but I also want our guys to remember this game as well. We really played hard right to the end and that is a remarkable trait that our guys possess. Nobody was down on a teammate, that too is what the culture is around the Club. We will make a couple lineup changes going into Friday's game, play hard and see if we can get back into this thing. We have our backs against the wall now, no doubt about that. It's absolutely a must-win if we want to still be fighting for a Provincial title.
The Panthers hit the ice Friday night at 7:30 pm at the Ladner Leisure Centre against the host Delta Ice Hawks.
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