December 14th vs. Victoria Cougars - Hockey Ops.

Good Evening Hockey Fans,

Welcome back to the Panorama Recreation Centre for the game tonight against the visiting and VIJHL leading Victoria Cougars.  In fact, the Cougars have the best record in Junior B Hockey in the Province and so I look forward to meeting them each and every time.  I actually like how we match up against our cross-town foes and our last two games have been very close.  On October 5th, we lost at home on a Friday evening 3-1 and were tied at 1-1 five minutes into the 3rd period when we were derailed by two Cougar goals in a 12-second span.  And then on November 2nd the same Cougar squad scored twice early in the first before we woke up.  The game went back and forth after that and we eventually lost 3-0.  More on this game in a bit.

Last weekend we had two home games scheduled, Friday night against the Westshore Wolves and Sunday afternoon against the Saanich Braves.  We won an exciting game on Friday night but it took a last-second save by Josh Round to put a cap on the 4-3 win.  Leading 4-2, the Wolves scored on the power play and with their goaltender pulled for an extra attacker with just 18-seconds left, and then had a chance to pull even with one second left, but were denied.  On Sunday we pulled out a 3rd Jersey that we had made up for this game to be gifted to 23 Peninsula Minor Hockey players when it was over.  A large crowd filtered in and one could feel the electricity in the building as the two teams took the customary warmup.  After the teams went to the dressing room, the Zamboni came out to resurface the ice however it ran out of propane and stopped just inside the Panthers blueline.  Here it dropped a bunch of hot water which melted the ice right to the concrete.  After a 30-minute delay the head referee cancelled the game and so now it was time to scramble to try and salvage the afternoon.  An impromptu skills competition was held on ice with the Panthers players and although it was not the game everyone had come to see, it was entertaining.  The 50/50 and door prizes were drawn and then the jerseys were gifted to 23 lucky PMHA winners as we had promised.  I am working at getting ice for the game that was cancelled and although it has not absolutely been nailed down, it looks at this point that the game will be played on a Tuesday evening on January 22nd.  I want to take this opportunity to thank Brad Peden from Peden RV Superstore one more time.  Peden RV was the sponsor of this game and have been for the past two seasons and have been a great partner of the Club.  Brad was very understanding during the entire event and I am not so sure that every big sponsor would be.  But under the circumstances, there was really nothing more that we could do and so we appreciate his support during the day as well as his ongoing support of the Panthers.

Looking at the South Division standings in the League, there is no doubt that the Cougars have a stranglehold on first place, in fact they are already home and cooled and will coast to the finish line.  The Braves can still be caught for 2nd place however they lead us by 8 points and have played 4 less games and so it would be a huge, huge surprise the way the season has played out if we were to catch them in the regular season.  We certainly do not have to hang our heads, these two squads are #1 and #2 in win percentage in the entire Province and I believe we are lucky to have them in our Division where we can clearly measure our players and measure our progress.  The fight for both the Westshore Wolves and our Club is for 3rd place and I expect that this one will go right down to the wire.  We currently trail the Wolves by two points however we have 18 games left while the Wolves have 15 to play.  We are in a tough part of our schedule right now, but we believe that we have come a long, long way from the start of the season and so embrace the challenge tonight and for the rest of the season.

Tonight will be our last HOME game before Christmas but we do play next Friday evening AT Saanich against the Braves.  We will then be back home on Friday, December 28th against the same Braves before heading up to Kerry Park on the 29th to take on the Kerry Park Islanders.  I thought it might be a good time to do a quick “Report Card” on the Club as we near Christmas and the New Year.  In goal Stephen Heslop was pegged as our starting goaltender last summer and he has played the lions share of the minutes at this point, in fact, more than any other stopper in the VIJHL and right up there with the League leaders in the Province.  He has not disappointed and we will be leaning heavily on him down the stretch and into the playoffs.  Justin Samra started out as the backup but was released a month ago when we picked up Josh Round.  Round has been everything we thought he would be and has pushed Heslop for starts.  I am more than happy with our goaltending situation, the most important position in the game.  Defence was a position that I was unsure of going into the year as the only player on the back end that had played a full season of Junior Hockey was Grayson Vickers.  Vickers started out slow but as of late has added more of a physical element to his play and when he does he commands a lot of respect around the league and makes everyone better.  Cody Breitenstein looked like he had a bunch of talent but I really did not know what we were going to get out of him.  He has been outstanding and has really anchored the group.  Patrick Croome was a late pickup joining the team after the first weekend and he is gritty, has a nice offensive side and has leadership qualities.  Kyle Richardson is a big defender and when he plays physical, the entire team benefits.  Brett Sjerven had medical issues during the summer and I never expected him to be in the lineup until around this time.  He has surprised everyone, is gritty, a team player in every aspect and at this point really adds some depth to the group.  Spencer Loverock is the best skating defenceman in the VIJHL and has been putting up some points to boot.  Loverock is only 17 years old and has some real upside.  Another 17-year-old is Austin Singhera and this youngster has a ton of skill and poise beyond his years.  He missed a number of games due to injury and is just coming back into his own once again.   I will review the forwards next home game on December 28th.

OK, it’s almost time for the puck to drop for the evening and I expect that it will be a fast, fast game tonight.  Thank you for coming out tonight and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each and every one of you.  See you in two weeks at our next home game!   Pete Zubersky