Panthers edged by Cougars 3-0

A large crowd filed into the Panorama Recreation Centre on Friday evening and most of them seemed ready to blow off some steam to start the weekend.  The two teams had finished their warmups and the sheet had been cleaned when the Peninsula Panthers and the Victoria Cougars spilled onto the ice to start the game.  There is no love lost between the two clubs who have had an intense rivalry for over a decade, a rivalry that is not lost on the many who were in attendance on the night.  But when the puck dropped, it was once again the young Panthers who seemed to be on their heels and it would take the visitors only 3:25 into the first period before Mark Walton would tip in a shot off the stick of Ben Kinshella to put the Panthers down by a goal.  And it was Kinshella who would again hit the scoresheet at 11:13 putting one to the back of the Panthers net behind starting goaltender Stephen Heslop.  The Panthers seemed to wake up after the sluggish start and played the rest of the first period even up against the Cougars however the damage had already been done.

A different Panthers Club came out for the 2nd period - a more physical and competitive version - and as the play went up and down the ice to the groans of the near-capacity crowd, it was hard to understand where the same effort was in the first ten minutes of the game.  But with less than a minute remaining in the frame, Samuel Rice took a feed from Brody Coulter and skated the length of the ice beating defenceman Grayson Vickers and then Heslop to put the nail in the Panthers coffin.  There would be no more scoring in the highly entertaining affair.

"Our kids are younger and less polished than the Cougars but there is absolutely no way that we can give them the respect that we gave them to start the game tonight," said Pete Zubersky.  "We have a lot of talent on this team but to come out on our heels time and time again is crap.  It's getting old.  This is such a great league and if you do not play 60 minutes you lose, end of story.  We are always playing from behind and something has to change right now, it has happened too many times as of late."

Perhaps one of the bright spots for the club was Heslop who blocked 32 of 35 shots directed his way in picking up the 2nd star in the game.  His counterpart, Evan Roch stopped all 15 shots in picking up the shutout.  He was named 3rd star.  Kinshella who skated miles and looked dangerous all night long was named the 1st star.

The Panthers have a chance to get back into the win column tomorrow night when they travel to Comox to take on the North Division leading Glacier Kings.  They travel to Westshore next Wednesday evening to face off against the Wolves before coming back to the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Complex next Friday night when they play host to the Campbell River Storm.

Panthers Tracks....Out for the Panthers due to injury were Brett Clarke, Cole Golka, Ben Meek and Austin Singhera....Logan Gibson was sitting out the 1st of a 3-game suspension....15-year-old Nathan Looysen played his first Junior game suiting up as an Affiliated Player for the Panthers....Looysen toils for the Peninsula Midget "AA" squad and the youngster will not turn 16 until the 24th of this month....Looysen started the game with his cousin, 18-year-old Brett Sjerven....the Panthers have the bodies to play with anyone in the VIJHL but are going through growing pains....Reece Costain looks better each time out....crowds are picking up for Panthers games bringing back memories of years gone by when the Club was the flagship franchise in the VIJHL....