Panthers season comes to a close - Connor Logan named Panthers Top Playoff Performer

In the end, a young Peninsula Panthers squad was beat by an older, better and more polished group of Victoria Cougars - a team that has been on top of the VIJHL from start to finish.  Brody Coulter and Ben Kinshella each scored twice for the Cougars while Kelyn Opel and Sam Rice each added singles in the 6-1 win.  The lone answer the Panthers could muster came off the stick of Josh Adkins, a young 17-year-old forward who will now join the Victoria Grizzlies this weekend where he should see game action in the BCHL.  Stephen Heslop took the loss blocking 23 of 29 shots directed his way while Cougars' starter Michael Herringer was a bit better stopping 25 of 26 shots thrown at him by a determined Panthers group.  With the win, the Cougars won the series 4-1 and now move on to the South Division Finals where they will face the Saanich Braves in the best-of-7 series.

"We played pretty hard in this series," explained Pete Zubersky.  But the Cougars were full value for the win.  "They might be the best Junior "B" team I have seen and all four of their lines can come at you all night long."  They had only one regulation loss this season and that came in a 48-game schedule.  Our kids beat them once in a great game last Friday but we could not find another win in the series, we were beat by a better team."

16-year-old Connor Logan was named the Panthers Top Playoff Performer.  "We had been discussing players that were in the running for the award including Will Finlay, Josh Adkins, Nathan Looysen and a couple of others but it was the feeling of our Management group that Connor deserved the award," said Head Coach/GM Brian Passmore.  "Connor has come such a long way this season that it is really quite hard to believe.  In this series both he and Looysen, our two 16-year-olds were playing with Adkins and they played a ton against Coulter, Rice and Feeney.  We are pretty proud of all the kids, Connor is what our program is all about.

In other VIJHL action the Saanich Braves bested the Westshore Wolves 4-2 in their best-of-7 and in all likelihood that series will get underway this coming Sunday at the Archie Browning Arena.  These two teams were the top two teams of the South Division during the regular season and this series looks like it should be an entertaining one.

The Panthers Organization took the time to discuss next season and put a cap on the one that was just completed.  "We think we will have a pretty good squad next time around," said Zubersky.  "This year was really about putting in the building blocks in an attempt to compete with the best teams in the VIJHL.  We only had three veterans in the mix and so there was a real learning curve that we were dealing with.  We have a great bunch of kids and I would think that most will be back.  We will be holding our Spring camp in April and will look to add some quality to our lineup during that time.  We also will be talking to some of the other teams in the VIJHL about players and I would think there will be some movement there.  But we are really quite happy about the development of most all of our players and as they were leaving the rink tonight, they were already talking about next season."

John Wilson and Zubersky both spoke about the support for the team on the Peninsula and how it has picked up once again.  "Our fan base is building back up," said Wilson.  "We had a lot of work to do this season, there is still much to be done.  We have just started our marketing campaign for the 2013/14 season and our new marketing person Tracy Zeisberger is and will be out in earnest in the next several months.  With the product we expect to have next season, we believe that our program will be right back where it was in years gone by, we are pretty optimistic and excited about the near future."

And with that statement the curtain comes down on the 2012/13 season.  The Peninsula Panthers Organization want to thank all our sponsors and fans for being so supportive and patient during the building process - we believe we have the best fans in the VIJHL.