October 5th vs. Victoria Cougars - Hockey Ops

Good Evening Hockey Fans,

Welcome back to the Panorama Recreation Centre tonight for our match up against the visitors from Esquimalt’s Archie Browning Arena, the Victoria Cougars.  The Cougars come in tonight leading the VIJHL in the early going and also having our number to date.  We have travelled to the Archie two times in the early going and have come out on the short end of the stick both times.  We are undefeated at home and I expect that our kids will put out a big effort tonight and believe you will all be treated to an exciting night.  The two clubs on the ice tonight are built quite differently.  We really cleaned out our roster and have come into this season with a club built on youth.  We have speed and skill and I am sure you have all seen that in our last several games.  The Cougars have a veteran laden roster, many of who were with that club when they defeated us in the VIJHL League Final season late last March.  They have better finish around the net right now but I believe we are as skilled and as fast or faster than they are.  We have a lot of work to do to get our systems play up to the level that they currently sit, however we knew this going in.  We are getting better and I have always believed that the 10-game mark in the season is where we will start to show a marked improvement.  Tonight is game 10.

Last Friday the Nanaimo Buccaneers came to town for their first visit to the Panorama and the game was up in the air until the final buzzer went off.  As most of you recall, we came out on the right end of a 2-1 score, a game which saw our youngsters shine.  16-year-old Connor Logan and 17-year-old “Whistler Will” Finlay each counted their first goals of the season - Finlay could have had two or three more.  And our young, talented and athletic stopper, 17-year-old Stephen Heslop had his best game of the year blocking 28 of 29 shots to pick up the win.  Stephen played great in our season opener when we beat the Westshore Wolves 3-1 and might have been even better a couple days later although our club lost a 1-0 decision on the road in Oceanside.  I thought that Stephen had been pretty good in the games that followed but he once again showed that he can be a game changer last Friday. 

This past Wednesday we made the short trip out to the Bear Mountain Arena to take on the Wolves.  The road has not been kind to us this season as we had dropped our first four games away from the Panorama going into this one.   The Wolves have taken a different path than we have and are going with a roster filled with veterans including three Panthers of last year.  Heslop made the start in nets for us however the game took a couple different twists and turns and in the end it looked much like a game of yesteryear.  We started out fast and were full of hustle looking to put our first road win of the year up on the board.  Will Finlay scored early and then Reece Costain scored his first goal of the season before the first period was half over.  Heslop made some nice stops and we went into the room at 2-0.  Cole Glover scored only seconds into the second period and, when Ben Meek scored his first of the year with seven minutes left in the second, I was feeling pretty good about a win.  Westshore scored only seconds later but we responded right away when Cole Golka hit paydirt giving us a 5-1 lead late in the period.  But the Wolves did not go down without a fight.  During a goalmouth scramble in front of the Westshore net with just under one minute left in the frame a Westshore defender laid three or four big cross checks on Jonas Horvath and this immediately brought a crowd with players from both teams getting in on the action.  A couple of our boys ended up in a bit of a tussle and were sent to the showers as were several Wolves.  But the fun was not over here as the Wolves had not yet got rid of all their frustrations.  With only seven seconds left, Wolves forward Brandon Nicholson flew into our zone as Heslop came out to the faceoff dot to play a loose puck.  Nicholson crashed into Heslop at full speed and with intent and immediately threw off his gloves.  Both teams became involved in some fistic activities and after everything was sorted out, the teams went to the rooms.  The 3rd period was uneventful, we scored a couple more and Justin Samra went in for Heslop and made some great saves in a mop up role.  It was truly a gritty road win for the Club.

I want to take a bit of time to discuss our new Captain, Patrick Croome.  As we have so many new players to the roster, we were unsure who the leader would be.  We had a lot of kids that have leadership qualities and so the coaches decided to have three players wearing “A’s” at home and three different ones wearing “A’s” on the road.  They just did not feel comfortable enough to pull the trigger on the “C” but that all changed before last Friday’s game against the Bucs.  Patrick was named and I think he is a great choice.  Patrick did not make the cut with Cowichan and then travelled to Saskatchewan where he was a last day cut of the Junior “A” team in North Battleford.  This happened a couple weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon, after which he jumped in his wheels and drove home to Calgary.  Rob Armstrong spoke with Patrick and he agreed to come here and throughout the Sunday afternoon and evening - our Club was on the bus going up and back to Oceanside when the deal was being done - Patrick agreed to come out to the Peninsula and a deal was struck with his former Junior “B” team in Alberta.  Patrick left home on the Monday morning and was on the 7:00 pm boat heading to the Island the same day.  Several players and Rob met him for a coffee in Sidney and then he was taken to the Fletcher’s home where he is being billeted.  Patrick practiced the following night and was in the lineup against the Saanich Braves one night later.  That was quite a whirlwind ride but now that he has settled in it seems as though his game is getting better each time out.  I have spoken with Cowichan Capitals Head Coach and GM Jim Ingram about Patrick and hope that he will be affiliated with that Club in the next while.  Congrats goes out from Panthers ownership to Patrick Croome on being named our Captain!

Alright then, we are almost set to go.  There will be some keys in this game tonight and of course they start in goal for both teams.  Heslop will be going for our Club and his play will determine to a large extent what happens in this game.  We need to contain Rice, Coulter and Feeney for the Cougars and with home-ice advantage, our coaching staff should be able to get the horses out against them with the last change at their fingertips.  Effort and grit, everything else will take care of itself.

Thank you for joining us again tonight.  I see the youngsters starting to come back into our barn and I think in another month we will be where we were in years gone by.  Thanks for the support, enjoy the game!    Pete Z.