Injury bug too much for Panthers to overcome

Saturday, November 4, 2023
Panorama Recreation Centre
North Saanich, British Columbia

To say that the Peninsula Panthers were banged up heading into a pair of games this past weekend would most certainly have been one of the bigger understatements of the day. A large number of Cats' players attending both the game Friday night at the Q Centre against the Westshore Wolves and then again on Saturday evening at home against the Campbell River Storm might well have been an excellent advertisement for Tip Top Tailors because they spent both evenings attired in suits sitting in the stands.

On Friday, the players who did play put in a lackluster effort and got what they fully deserved, a 6-3 shellacking at the hands of the Wolves.  Malcolm Fletcher scored twice and Captain Evan Crawford added a single, while Silas Currie absorbed the loss between the pipes.

"Currie has been way better than very good for us this season," mused Panthers Owner Pete Zubersky. "On Friday night he was OK and with the effort put out on the ice over the 60 minutes, our goaltender being OK was not going to get it done. We had a handful of players who worked hard and when I say handful, I think the hand was cutting some wood and accidently went into the saw blade.  We certainly were not close to even five guys who I would say were OK.  It will never be good enough and that was true on Friday."

In a rare Saturday evening home game in the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre, the game went down to the final seconds but once again the Cats could not find a way to pull out a win.  At the end of regulation time, the scoreboard had the Storm full handing the Cats a 3-2 loss.  Tanner Ferrill made the start between the pipes against his hometown Campbell River Storm and was stellar throughout the evening. The Panthers were down 3-1 with under two minutes remaining in the contest, but the Storm were whistled for two minor penalties on the same play.  Head Coach Tyler Stanton pulled Ferrill for the extra attacker and the 6-on-3 power play hit paydirt right away when Ryan Grambart blasted a one-timer to the back of the Storm cage.  The locals could not muster another marker before the final buzzer sounded.  Rowan Cairns was the other marksman.

The Panthers called up four affiliate players, two on the back end and two up front including Luke Kim, Jax Hall, Carson Bohn and younger brother of Cats Luka Jansen van Rensburg, Christiaan.  And all four acquitted themselves very well.  Out for the evening were regulars Reid Fryer, Risto Ringma, Jason Sekulich, Ahron Calalay, Cameron Sneek, Charlie Williams and Carson Harris.  But Zubersky offered no excuses.

"Nobody in our League cares how many guys we have out right now. They come in and want to beat us. Every team goes through adversity in a number of different ways each year and we are going through something right now. But our guys will get back and our staff will work hard to make sure we compete every night.  We have some big games coming up this month and we have to be ready. The other guys will be."

The Panthers host the Saanich Predators Friday night at 7:30 pm. Iron and Wood Golf Simulators will be the evening's game night sponsor.