Panthers get an emotional win the day after deadline deals

There were too many storylines to capture them in one article but suffice to say, a large crowd were entertained at the Panorama Recreation Centre on Friday night and each and every one of them were on a high as they spilled into the parking lot to the tunes of "Happy Trails" after the game.

Less than 24 hours earlier the Panthers completed three transactions which saw Spencer Loverock, Cole Golka and Patrick Croome change postal codes.  But a spirited group came out on Friday evening and would simply not be denied a win at any cost, an urgency that has been missing from the lineup as of late.  The final was 3-2 in a shootout.

Confidence is a funny thing, and nobody in the Panthers room knows it more than the big power forward, 18-year-old Ben Meek.  Meek has had his fair share of struggles this season but over the past several games has shown signs that he was ready to snap out of it and on Friday night he did in spades.  In fact, the only thing that he might have forgotten to do was put on the cape with a big "S" that he must have left in his wheels.  Meek was a human wrecking ball for most of the evening and drew at least one penalty in the process.  But he also scored twice, the first one on a goal scorer's goal when he raced in from centre ice, made a couple moves and beat Kerry Park Islanders goaltender Jordan Hospes to open the scoring at 13:15 of the first frame.  But the Panthers ran into a bit of penalty problems and Kyle Pederson made no mistake when he deposited a power play marker with just over a minute left in the period.

The Panthers went on the power play early in the 2nd period and a blast from the point off the stick of Zack Smith looked like it was harmless enough except for Meek who was stationed in front of Hospes.  Meek tipped the puck just enough to fool the Islanders stopper and the goal seemed to spark his team. 

The Panthers carried the play for the most part but with just over seven minutes left in the contest the Islanders were sent on the power play when an inadvertant stick ended up in the face of one of the Islander defenceman.  The incident drew blood and sent Panthers Daniel Welch to the sin bin for four minutes.  Pederson once again was Johnny-on-the-spot when he pounced on a loose puck to Panthers netminder Stephen Heslop left and made no mistake putting it past the talented goalie.  Although the Panthers carried the play and had quality chances, the buzzer sounded at the end of 60 minutes of play with the teams knotted at two each.

The five-minute overtime would solve nothing although it was Panthers Josh Adkins who had the best chance when he beat Hospes but could not beat the crossbar as the puck shot off into the netting.

The Islanders Connor Krupa was the first shooter for the Islanders and he was foiled by Heslop.  Speedy Will Finlay was first up for the Panthers and as he neared Hospes he made a nifty move to his backhand and ripped it high into the yawning cage.  Next up for the Islanders was Pederson who is regarded as one of the most skilled players in the VIJHL.  Pederson slowly moved in on Heslop but the young goaltender was patient and when Pederson released a snapshot which was labelled for the top corner, Heslop snaked out his catching glove and cleanly devoured the puck.  16-year-old Nathan Looysen was next up for the Panthers and he came in on Hospas, made a move to his forehand and popped one just over the goaltenders pad and into the back of the net.  A jubilant Panthers squad had a long celebration on the ice after the game and it was one that each and every fan seemed to enjoy.

Meek was named the games 1st star, Heslop the 2nd star and Hospas the 3rd star.  The Panthers outshot the Islanders by a 55-28 count and were full value for the win.

"I was really proud of our kids tonight," explained Pete Zubersky.  It is tough to rebound after seeing some of your best players move on but I thought that others picked up the slack.  Meek played his best game of the year and was rewarded.  I thought that Cole Glover had a really workmanlike game and I am sure he will be a key guy as we move on from here.  Our back end was quite good tonight.  We picked up PMHA product 18-year-old Thomas Strocel and he was really good in his first game.  We played like a team tonight, it was great to see."

The Panthers have a week off and will be back at home next Friday night when Cole Golka and the Saanich Braves will make a visit to the Panorama Recreation Centre for a 7:30 pm start.