Panthers win home opener in convincing fashion

Not unlike a warm summer Saturday evening at the World Famous Butchart Gardens, there was a quiet time early on and then everyone was able to sit back and watch the fireworks display at the end of the night on Friday at the Panorama Recreation Centre.  The Gardens is only a stone's throw from the Recreation Centre and their Saturday fireworks are over for the season and now the Peninsula Panthers are hoping that they can be the ones that are able to generate the "bang" over the winter months.  And they were certainly hoping for some fireworks of their own in their Home Opener against the visiting Kerry Park Islanders.

The evening started out on the quiet side for the Panthers and when newcomer Brandon Story opened the scoring with just under a minute left in the first frame, it also signified one of few scoring chances the Club had generated to that point.  Connor Logan and Jackson Skerratt chipped in with helpers on the scoring play.  Although the Panthers had outshot the Islanders by a 16-12 count, it was obvious that there was rust on the collective team as passes bounced off skates time and time again or missed completely and went the length of the sheet for icing.

It would be returning veteran Cole Glover who hit paydirt at 7:29 of the 2nd period as he drove to the net to tip a pass by a startled Jackson Jane between the pipes for the Islanders.  But the two-goal bulge did not last long and four minutes later Matt Grant scored on the Power Play for the visitors, sneaking one past Panthers starter Stephen Heslop.  With five minutes to go in the middle stanza, Panthers super-sniper Zach Smith took a feed from Glover and romped in on the left side before snapping one between the pads of Jane to find nothing but net.

In the third it was nothing but Panthers on the board.  Logan scored his first of the year as did newly acquired Tate Coughlin.  Skerratt put the icing on the cake when he tallied with just 45 ticks left on the clock.

There were a couple interesting storylines on the night, one being the play of Coughlin who was named the game's first star.  The 16-year-old had been in the Kelowna Rockets camp and had been attending Major Midget tryouts in Victoria but had been spoken with by Panthers Head Coach and General Manager Brian Passmore about joining the Panthers organization for the 2013/14 season.  Passmore was not in the barn on the night and will miss the Panthers first four games as he will be away on his honeymoon however he was able to ink Coughlin late on Thursday evening, less than 24 hours before the opener.  "Ben King, Passy and I were at the Archie Browning watching the Cougars and Glacier Kings when Passy received a call from Tate," explained Pete Zubersky.  "Our coaching staff were sky high on the young fellow and believe he could follow in the footsteps of Nathan Looysen who just signed with the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL.  They had been working at signing him but he was also looking at Major Midget.  When that program told him that he was down to the 4th line in their depth chart he decided to come out this way.  Honestly, I'm not sure what they saw.  Nathan was cut from that program and took off with us and I expect that Coughlin will do the same.  In my mind, this is absolutely the best thing that happened to him.  We will fill this youngster up with icetime and our goal is for him to develop against older Junior age kids and move to the next level.  If a player wants to continue to develop and move up, I believe it is better for the top-end kids to play against 20-year-olds rather than 15-year-olds but I guess everyone sees it differently.  And with a goal and two apples in his first game, he is doing his part, no doubt about that.  We have a solid track record of moving kids to the next level, we will continue to do that."

Panthers Tracks....Panthers are at home next Friday against the Westshore Wolves....Coughlin, Logan and Heslop were named the three stars....19-year-old Brett Sjerven will be wearing the "C" for the 2013/14 season....Iver Oedegaard, who hails from Norway and played for the Panthers in the last half of the season two years ago, should be in the lineup on Thursday in Victoria against the Cougars....Just prior to the game the Panthers obtained the International Release for his playing services.