Panthers produce 3rd period 4-goal barrage to remain undefeated

September 16, 2022
North Saanich, British Columbia

Everyone on the Peninsula and certainly everyone in the Peninsula Panthers Organization knew that at the end of Friday night, only one team would remain undefeated in the Southern Division of the VIJHL. Both the visiting Victoria Cougars and Panthers sat with two wins after the opening weekend of play and a couple of determined sides rolled into the parking lot and strode into the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre to see who would be the last man standing. And once 60 minutes were in the books and after a four-goal outburst over seven minutes of play in the 3rd period had become part of the script, a jovial group gathered around goaltender Brady Kelly with the scoreboard flashing a 4-2 win for the home side.

Penalty issues cropped up yet again and with just under one minute left in the game, the Panthers had been sent to the box five times while the Cougars seemed as though they could do nothing wrong had not been whistled for even one infraction. But with the game seemingly fully in hand and with just just 56 seconds left in the game, the visitors were finally given a two-minute minor penalty for 'Closing a hand on the puck.'

It started only 1:20 into the game when Ethan Lingard was whistled for tripping and it continued with four more infractions in the middle stanza. The penalties kept all the momentum with the visitors but a frustrated Panthers' side were buoyed by a spectacular outing coming between the pipes from returning netminder Brady Kelly.

"The whistle has certainly not been favourable to us over our first three games," quipped Panthers General Manager Pete Zubersky.  "Five penalties in a row against one team in a game that was significant this early in the season was a bit surprising to see.  It started just over a minute in when Lingard was called for tripping and I immediately thought that I hope he allows both teams to play the game.  We are two evenly matched groups and so when we have five penalties when the game was in the balance and the Cougars did not have any until the game was virtually over on the scoreboard and on the clock, was interesting.  We have to go back to the video and look at each call and look at calls that we felt should have gone the other way and learn from it.  We are focusing on getting our penalty situation in control.  Coach has talked about it to our players a lot this week.  Historically, we have always been the lowest or one of the lowest penalized teams in the League so we will figure this out.  I hope that stripes are not looking at our penalty totals coming into each game and saying that they have to be hard on us because of the totals.  I am sure that would not be the case.  We will get this right before Sunday when we travel to Lake Cowichan."

Kelly and Cougars' netminder Josh Doherty both were unbeatable over the first 40 minutes of play, albeit, Kelly had more action in his end of the ice.  But it would be visiting veteran Mark Castilla who would finally solve Kelly to open the scoring exactly 8:00 minutes into the final frame.  Perhaps this woke up the Panthers group but more likely the sudden injection of energy came from rookie Luka Jansen van Rensburg.  The PMHA product looked like he decided to take matters into his own hands as he pounded Cougars all over the ice.  And his efforts were catchy as the big and talented Club started a physical onslaught.  And at the 9:44 mark, the floodgates opened and they did not close until Louis Armstrong's rendition of 'A Wonderful World' serenaded a sizeable and happy crowd to their vehicles at the end of regulation.  It started with Theodore St-Denis taking a pass from Ethan Warnes at the right point and sending a rocket hurtling towards Doherty.  The 'Swiss Army Knife' Tristan Rosenblood was stationed in front and he tipped the blast past Doherty to knot the score at 1-1.  But that was only the start.  Spencer Cotie, Lingard and Ryan Grambart each added a single marker over the next 7:10 giving the Panthers a 4-1 lead with under four minutes remaining in the game.  Cougars Jackson Estey with 1:14 left in the game would make the score a bit tighter but for all intents and purposes, Grambart's insurance marker put a cap on the evening."


"I was standing beside former Panthers sniper Josh Lingard and his father Eugene just prior to the start of the 3rd period and I asked them two questions," said Zubersky.  "The first one was what they thought the final score would be and the second one was if they thought the Cougars would get a penalty.  We all thought one goal was going to win it and they both thought it would be in overtime.  That 3rd period was crazy and exciting for our fans.  I can't believe that we are seeing those kind of games in the middle of September.  This League is really entertaining and loaded with talent."

Jansen van Rensburg and Kelly were clearly the best two Panthers on the evening.  Jansen van Rensburg came out of the affair with a couple helpers, 3-4 great scoring chances and a lot of physical play.  Kelly stopped 40 of 42 shots, many of them of the difficult variety and he picked up the win and the Player of the Game for the Panthers.  Doherty stopped 22 of 26 shots sent his way and was collared for the loss.  Castilla was named as the Cougars Player of the Game.


The Cats from the Peninsula have Saturday off and will head to Lake Cowichan for a 5:30 pm date Sunday evening and will hope to extend their winning streak to four to start the season.  

Next weekend will be most interesting.  The Club will see the VIJHL North Division Champion Oceanside Generals from last season in a rematch of the VIJHL finals series.  And they will play the very next day at home again when they welcome in the Campbell River Storm for a 2:00 pm matinee next Saturday.  These are two of the top Clubs in the North and the Cats will undoubtedly have to be on top of their game.