Panthers dump Islanders, Host Saanich Braves on TUESDAY evening

Since making sweeping sweeping changes at the trade deadline on January 10th, the Peninsula Panthers have rolled along just fine, thank you very much!  With a 5-3 win in Mill Bay on Saturday evening against the Kerry Park Islanders, the Peninsula Panthers concluded a two-game weekend capturing 3 of a possible 4 points and 5 of 6 points since the aforementioned deadline.

"Quite a number of people I spoke with thought we would end up in the tank after the three deals we made on January 10th," explained Pete Zubersky.  "But I honestly thought that it would make the remaining kids work that much harder as they would take on more significant roles.  I really like how we are playing right now."

Will Finlay opened the scoring for the Panthers with just over eight minutes having elapsed in the 1st period and then the two Clubs exchanged goals a couple times before 20 minutes were in the books.  Also scoring for the Panthers were Cole Glover and Nathan Looysen while brothers Kyle and Corey Peterson replied for the Islanders.

The 16-year-old Looysen - who is currently scoring at a point per game - was the lone marksman in the 2nd period giving the Panthers a 4-2 lead as the teams went to the room after 40 minutes of play.

And it looked like the Panthers would cruise to the win however, Islanders Eric Mnsueti had other plans when he scored with just over five minutes remaining in the game to draw the Islanders within one.  But Panthers veteran Cody Allison had other ideas of his own when he scored an unassisted goal late in the game to put the game on ice. 

Jordan Hospes gave the Islanders a chance on the evening stopping 52 of 57 Panthers shots directed his way while the "Cats" starter Stephen Heslop picked up the win blocking 22 of 25 shots. 

Next up, the Panthers play the Saanich Braves who will make their way to the confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre this Tuesday evening at 7:30 pm.  This is the makeup date for the game which was cancelled earlier in December due to a Zamboni malfunction.