Good Evening Hockey Fans,
Welcome back to the Panorama Recreation Centre where tonight we take on North Division VIJHL opponent, the Oceanside Generals. This is obviously the last time the Generals will grace the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre this regular season - next Friday will be our final regular season game. The Generals are just under .500 for the season and sit 5 points back of our Club as they come in tonight. For the most part, our games have been quite tight however we have not seen them for several months so tonight should be an interesting one. The Generals will be playing the Comox Valley Glacier Kings in Round 1 of the best-of-7 playoffs and, although they are 4 points back of the Generals, they are still hoping to catch up and pass them which would give them home ice advantage in that series.
Our Club is quite banged up at this point and we are just trying to get healthy as we approached the playoffs against the Victoria Cougars in two weeks. Out of the lineup tonight are quite a number of players for various reasons. Defencemen Austin Singhera, Cody Breitenstein and Brett Sjerven are not expected to play tonight. Sjerven is the only question mark as he was in the lineup last night but was hit in the top of the foot by a slapshot. He was limping out of the Archie Browning Arena last night and was heading to Emergency to see if there was any damage and, although I have not yet heard from him, I do expect that he too will be on the shelf. Jonas Horvath will once again slide back to defence and we have called up 16-year-old Hunter Frampton from the Peninsula Midget A team. I am not sure if Coach Brian Passmore will be calling up another D or perhaps use one more of our forwards on the back end. Up front our leading scorer Josh Adkins will be a no-show tonight. Josh left with the Victoria Grizzlies earlier today and will be taking part of a 3-game road trip to the Lower Mainland and Interior with them. He has been getting a lot of action with them in this latter part of the season which bodes well for him in terms of moving up a level next season...good on him. Josh will be back next week with our club and I expect he will have a great playoff for our team. Jackson Skerratt is banged up and Logan Gibson is under the weather and we have called up Josh Allison from the Midget A team. This will be his first crack at the Junior B level and I am quite looking forward to seeing him compete. Although it hurts to have our regulars out of the lineup - especially so many at the same time - it does allow us to get a chance to see kids who we may be looking at for next season in actual meaningful games. Returning to our squad after a long, long absence is the big, hulking forward Brett Clarke. Clarke had hurt his knee earlier this season and although he is a bit out of shape, he is a physical presence that may be important tonight and in the playoffs. Yes, tonight we will see a lineup that is more like a MASH unit but I am looking forward to seeing our kids compete and hopefully put up a win tonight.
As I mentioned, the playoffs series are now set. Up North, the Nanaimo Buccaneers just clinched 1st place in that Division last night and they will play the 4th place seed. As I have mentioned before, the last place team in the North (Campbell River) will play the last place team in the South (Kerry Park) on Sunday, February 17th @ 1:30 pm at the Bear Mountain Arena in a 1-game sudden death playoff. The loser will be eliminated from further playoff action, while the winner will move to the North and take the 4th place seed and go up against the Buccaneers in the best-of 7 series. And the Oceanside Generals will take on the Comox Valley Glacier Kings - the only thing to be determined there is who will get the home-ice advantage.
In the South, we will take on the Victoria Cougars while the Saanich Braves will have home-ice advantage as they prepare to take on the Westshore Wolves. Our series dates have been set and so here is what our next week will look like.
Friday, February 15th..KP Islanders @ Panthers (Last regular season gm)
Saturday, February 16th....Panthers Awards Banquet - Glen Meadows
Sunday, February 17th....Wild Card Game @ 1:30 pm at Bear Mountain
Gm. 1 Thursday, February 21- Peninsula Panthers @ Vic.Cougars
Gm. 2 Friday, February 22 - Vic. Cougars @ Peninsula Panthers
Gm. 3 Sunday, February 24 - Peninsula Panthers @ Vic. Cougars
Gm. 4 Monday, February 25 - Vic. Cougars @ Peninsula Panthers
Gm. 5 Thursday, Feb. 28 - Panthers @ Cougars (if required)
Gm. 6 Friday, March 1 - Cougars @ Panthers (if required)
Gm. 7 Sunday, March 3 - Panthers @ Cougars (if required)
I encourage each and every one of you to attend the Sudden Death Wild Card Game next Sunday afternoon at Bear Mountain. I believe that this could be the biggest crowd in VIJHL history due to the exciting winner-take-all format. Tickets for this game are an even $10. and after expenses have been paid the profit from the
afternoon will go to the VIJHL. After the game is over, the individual VIJHL awards will be presented in an on-ice ceremony in front of the fans. Once again, it should be an exciting afternoon so please join the VIJHL in making this a game to remember.
We are going through the final arrangements for our Awards Banquet next Saturday, February 16th and the day after our final regular season game at the Glen Meadows Golf and Country Club at the corner of McTavish and West Saanich Rd. The meal will be served at 5:30 pm (by the way, a fabulous meal!) and anyone coming is welcome to arrive up to an hour earlier for refreshments. A no-host bar will be available. All fans are welcome and encouraged to join us for the Awards Banquet and if you plan to attend, please see Coreen in the ticket booth between Periods and she will help you out with tickets or information.
In keeping with the theme of getting information out, we have hired Tracy Zeisberger and she will now be doing our Marketing as we move forward. Tracy is well known out here on the Peninsula as she has a couple of sons in Peninsula Minor Hockey and I am sure that if you have not met her as of yet, you will bump into her sooner rather than later. Tracy has been out making calls already trying to gather support in the community for the Peninsula Panthers and once you have the opportunity to get to know her, I am sure you will agree that she is really an awesome lady. Tracy has come up with some really creative ideas and I believe you will see many of these changes next season from the very first game. I want to take this opportunity to thank every single sponsor, big or small. Without your support there is no way that our franchise could continue in the VIJHL.
It is time for the puck to drop so let’s get ready for some Panthers action. Thank you for coming out to the game tonight, I hope it is a good one and that our kids put a win up on the board tonight.
Pete Zubersky
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