#33 Goaltender Stephen Heslop is seen here blocking a shot last season against the Kerry Park Islanders. Heslop is hoping to get into the win column on Friday when the Panthers open their 2013/14 VIJHL regular season schedule at home against the same Islander squad. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
With Main Camp set to close early Monday afternoon the Peninsula Panthers squad is rounding into shape.
45 hopefuls are still in the Peninsula Panthers Main Camp being held at the Panorama Recreation Centre however team management have only a couple names to pencil in before the opening day roster practices together for the first time on Monday evening at 7:00 pm. The club will be holding a blue/white intersquad game Monday morning at 10:00 am and this will be followed by a round of cuts bringing the team down to somewhere between 20-22 players.
On Friday and Saturday evening a group of rookies battled the Saanich Braves before bowing by 3-0 and 3-1 counts. But the two games allowed the coaching staff to see the youngsters compete and to get a sense of who might be in a position to crack the opening night lineup.
The team should ice a solid nucleus from last season, perhaps as many as 18 or 19 returning players. "We are still waiting to see who will be coming back from Junior "A" Camps," explained Head Coach and General Manager Brian Passmore. "I just received a call from our starter from last season, Stephen Heslop and he indicated that he will be flying in from Saskatchewan tomorrow afternoon and should be on the ice tomorrow evening with the team. We are waiting to hear from Cody Breitenstein who is also in a Saskatchewan Junior "A" camp, we should have some idea tonight or tomorrow I would think. And we are working through details of a trade agreement with the Saanich Braves from a deadline deal last season but that looks like it might take until after our opener on Friday. We also have to put the final touches on an agreement with the Comox Valley Glacier Kings on another deal on January 10th but that probably will not settle for several weeks, at least that is what the plan is right now. But we have a lot of jump right now, we are trying to make our team better and I believe the kids understand that if they are not going to the wall somebody else will be in the lineup who will. We are all pretty excited as a group."
The Panthers will open their regular season at home this Friday evening at 7:30 pm when they face the visiting Kerry Park Islanders in VIJHL action. A large opening night crowd is expected.
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