Good Evening Hockey Fans,
Welcome back to the Panorama Recreation Centre for our Thursday night game tonight against the visiting Saanich Braves. To date the Braves have shown to be one of the top groups not only in the VIJHL but in Junior “B” hockey in the Province. In fact, the South Division is packed with several of the best teams in the Province and that makes both fans and players alike the big winners. Fans can come out and watch a great brand of hockey while the players get to compete against some of the best players at this level in the Country. In my mind, there is absolutely no better place for a young player to develop than right here in the South Division of the VIJHL and I believe that tonight you will see what I mean and be treated to a great game.
This is only the third meeting of the year between the two Clubs and the first for us in our home barn. We have come out second best in the other two games. We played the Braves on September 12th and lost 5-3. In this game the score actually was a lot closer than the game and I felt that the Braves were full value for the win - a game that they could have scored more except for some great goaltending by our own Stephen Heslop. We played in George Pearkes again on October 24th and this time lost in a shootout after going through 60 minutes of regulation and an extra 5 minutes of Overtime with the score still knotted at 2. The Braves Josh Gray finally solved Heslop after the first three shooters were stymied and we could not manage to beat Tanner McGaw and so we left that night feeling good about our improvement as a group and yet disappointed that we could not pull out the win.
This brings us to tonight. The Braves are on a big roll having knocked off the Victoria Cougars last Thursday evening at the Archie Browning Arena and then going into a shootout with the same Cougars team the following night before coming out second best. This is an older and experienced team - one that is loaded with six 20-year-olds and an additional seven 19-year-olds. I believe that the Cougars are already away and cooled off in the race for 1st place in the South Division and the VIJHL, but the battle for 2nd - 4th place in the South is alive and well. We have built our squad very differently than the Braves. We are loaded with young kids and our kids are getting better with each game. We are starting to believe in each other and our game is showing the results and so I expect that tonight is going to be fast, up and down that features a great stopper at either end.
Last Friday night we hosted the Westshore Wolves and I felt we were full value for the 8-4 win we put up on the board. At one point in the game midway through the 2nd period we had chased their starter in running up a 6-1 lead but we then seemed to take our foot off the throttle and allowed Westshore to get back into the game coming within three goals in the 3rd frame. Once again our youth showed through, a veteran club might have kept their foot on the throat and completed the game in easy fashion. But the reality is that we are loaded with youth and that we will continue to see this type of growing pains as we get better and better as a group. I said it at the start of the season and I will say it once again, we are focused on getting better each time out with an eye on winning hockey games and being ready once the playoffs hit us midway through February.
Several of our guys have been playing much better as of late including Cole Golka, Zack Smith, Daniel Welch and Josh Adkins up front, among others. These young fellows are working hard and putting up points that we did not see early in the season and they are being supported by a host of others on the Club. Our back end is improving each time out. Our goaltending situation improved with the addition of Josh Round and I like this tandem as much as anyone in the VIJHL. Round made his first start for the team last Friday against Westshore and was aided a ton by some great offence in the game in picking up his first win. I would like to see Josh improve his save percentage which I believe will happen right away. He will get the start on Sunday up in Campbell River against the Storm and he knows that area well, playing some of his Midget Hockey up in those parts and of course playing with the Comox Valley Glacier Kings before we picked him up last week.
I wanted to talk just a bit about next week and what it has in store for our Club. After playing the Storm on Sunday, we will head to Saanich to take on the Braves on Wednesday evening. We then are back at home next Friday for our regular game slot when we take on those same Westshore Wolves in what will be yet another very important game in our tough December schedule. And then next Sunday afternoon on December 9th at 1:30 pm we will host the Braves for an afternoon game, but not any regular type of game. This is our annual Peninsula Minor Hockey “Appreciation Game” in which we break out our 3rd jersey that we have had made up specifically for the contest. All PMHA players will be admitted free and their parents will be admitted for $5.00 and I fully expect that our barn will be packed for this one. After the game there will be a 20-minute presentation. 23 names of PMHA players will be drawn in front of the crowd and these 23 lucky winners will make their way down onto the ice. Once the winners are in place a second draw will take place. The 23 names from PMHA will be placed in a container and the names of 23 Peninsula Panthers Players will be placed in another container. A name will be drawn from the PMHA container and then similarly from the Peninsula Panthers container. The Panthers player will skate over and put his game-worn jersey onto the lucky PMHA winner and this will continue until all 23 jerseys have been gifted. This is clearly my favourite game of the VIJHL season - it is always so much fun to see the smiles on the faces of the winners, the Panthers players and the people in attendance. The Peden family from Peden’s RV Superstore have once again stepped up to sponsor this game and a heart-filled thank you goes out to the family and the business from
the Peninsula Panthers Organization. We hope that all of you will be able to join us next Friday during our regularly scheduled game and on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 pm. If you are a regular Panthers fan and usually sit in the same seat, it would be wise to arrive early on Sunday as it is going to be a full house.
We have almost been at this a year now for our 2nd time owning the team and it has been a lot of hard work. The community has come onside and I see our crowds continuing to grow and the young hockey fans growing in numbers each week. Thank you for your support. OK, it’s time for the puck to drop this evening. Please sit back & enjoy a great game tonight!
Pete Zubersky
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