Cats remain a purrfect 6-0 with a pair of weekend wins over the Generals and Storm

September 24, 2022
North Saanich, British Columbia

The Peninsula Panthers stood as the only unbeaten team after a pair of squeakers in the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre this past weekend.  On Friday night the Club bounced the Oceanside Generals, albeit, it took five minutes of overtime and a shootout to turn aside the visitors.  And after a quick turn around, the Cats welcomed in the Campbell River Storm for a 2:00 pm start on Saturday and just like in the game up in Storm territory back on September 10th, the Panthers prevailed by an identical 3-2 score.

Bench Boss Chris Driebergen, who has lead the squad to their best start ever at 6-0, discussed the weekend in his office following the matinee victory over the Storm and had these comments.

"Our boys definitely got the message and managed to play within the rules and eliminated our penalty minutes this weekend.  This is something we will need to continue to do if we want to keep having success on the ice. 
 
Both of our goaltenders, twin brothers Mason and Brady Kelly were once again fantastic, some big timely saves from each of them which kept us in both games.  Brady was stellar on Friday night and Mason duplicated his effort on Saturday. 
 
We continued our early season pattern of slow starts Friday, as a team we know this will not serve us well as the season moves along and we have been lucky to get away with this disturbing trend for the first five games. But we met prior to the game Saturday against Campbell River and discussed ways to make sure we started on time. I really liked how the team responded and think we can build off our first period versus the Storm. 
 
Mason McNeill was a monster on the backend for us this weekend, he played some tough hockey and really set an example of how we need to compete shift after shift. 
 
I thought that Tristan Rosenblood had another strong weekend, I think he's been one of our most consistent players to start the year and has been able to seamlessly slot in on all lines and special team situations.  Pete likes to call him our 'Swiss Army Knife' and he certainly has been that, plus more.
 
It was nice to finally see Julian Phillips in action, he was a leader on the bench and accepted a role as mentor to our younger players.  JR has been out of the lineup until this weekend due to an upper body injury and I expect that he will get even better each time out. 
 
I'm really liking the resiliency of our Club and their ability to continue grinding away at teams.  I could not be any happier after going through the first six tough games with six wins under out belts.  But there is lots that we have to clean up and we will work on those things on Monday before we head up to Kerry Park to take on the Islanders, a team that is fresh off a victory over the Oceanside Generals.  It won't be easy."

The Panthers had a slow start Friday night and trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes were in the books with the Oceanside Generals.  But Ryan Grambart popped a couple 2nd period goals to knot the score at 2-2 before the visitors once again took the lead late in the period.  The Panthers dominated the 3rd stanza and it was 17-year-old Ethan Lingard who banged in a rebound from three feet out to tie the game once again and send it into overtime.  The five-minute extra frame did not solve anything and the two foes went to the shootout.  Tanner Banks scored the only goal of the shootout while goaltender Brady Kelly held the fort, not allowing anything or anyone to beat him to secure the win.

On Saturday, in the 3-2 win over the Storm Banks scored a 1st period marker and Grambart added a couple in the final 20 minutes to get the Cats to the finish line first.  Mason Kelly was nails all game long and collected the win after blocking 24 of 26 shots.

The win was the Panthers 6th in a row to open the 2022/23 VIJHL season and coupled with the Comox Valley Glacier Kings loss Saturday night on home ice to the visiting Victoria Cougars, the Panthers now remain as the only undefeated squad in the League.  But there is no rest ahead as the Cats travel to Mill Bay on Tuesday night to face the Islanders and then are back at home next Friday night at 7:30 pm where they will host the suddenly red hot Port Alberni Bombers.

But for at least for the rest of the weekend the Cats can be satisfied that their record is simply purrfect after six games in a 48-game regular season.