Panthers get off on the right paw with a quick start to the VIJHL Regular Season

Jackson Skerratt may only have played a little more than a handful of games in the VIJHL however, the 20-year-old veteran appears to be running with the opportunity he has been presented.  Playing on a line with 17-year-old Connor Logan and 16-year-old Tate Coughlin, the trio has been racking up points each game out and these points have been turning into wins for the Club. 

On Thursday night the team lost a heartbreaker to the Victoria Cougars but for the first time in a long time, the two Clubs were close and this might just be a signal for some great games in the future between these two rivals.  Trailing 5-4 going into the 3rd period, Skerratt knotted the game at 5-5 when he tallied with help from his two buddies, Coughlin and Logan.  The score remained the same at the end of regulation and once again after the first five minutes of overtime which featured some 4-on-4 hockey.  The new format for the second five minute overtime period is 3-on-3 but the fans did not get to see much of it as the Cougars won the draw and walked in on a 2-on-1 and with only 7 seconds having been expired, Mark Walton finished off a pass from Michael Fretz to put the needle in the Panthers' balloon.

Scoring for the Panthers in the highly entertaining affair were Will Finlay, Cody Breitenstein, rookie defenceman Sean Buchanan and Skerratt with a couple.

Ben King was behind the bench for the Panthers as Head Coach and General Manager Brian Passmore continued his honeymoon in Aruba.  King was obviously disappointed with dropping the game but felt that there were some real positives to come from it.  "We were pretty tentative in the first period but as the game went along we got better.  I thought at times we really looked solid in our own end but at other times we were absolutely awful.  But most of our mistakes were from players not yet understanding the system and so these are all correctable.  I am pretty excited and really like our team."

On Friday night back in the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre, the Panthers faced off against the Westshore Wolves.  The Wolves came into the game with several of their top forwards banged up and the Panthers were hoping to capitalize.  And they did just that as soon as the puck was dropped.  Skerratt started the night off on the right foot when he converted a pretty play with helpers from Coughlin and Logan.  Logan added another and Buchanan let one fly from the point that seemed to weave it's way through a pile of bodies and eventually went past a startled Matt Chester in goal for the Wolves.  Cole Glover made it 4-0 on a short-handed effort with just under two minutes left in the first period when the puck squirted past the Wolves defence leaving Glover to skate in alone on Chester.  He made no mistake with a pretty move before tucking the puck between the goalie's legs.  But the scoring would not end there.  Recently traded Thomas Strocel left the Panthers his calling card when he tallied a powerplay marker for the Wolves on a funny bounce off a Panthers defencemen, and then with only 5 ticks left in the period Braedon Behan scored for the Wolves to draw them within two on a marker that Panthers rookie goaltender Joey Karrer would most likely have wanted back.  Karrer, who played Midget last season in Smithers, B.C., was making his first Junior start between the pipes and would eventually pick up the win.

Perhaps the most rugged player in the VIJHL, Reece Costain blew past a Wolves' defender to put himself all alone with Chester and he made no mistake with 3:43 gone in the 2nd.  But Behan made it 5-3 only one minute later.  Nick Kean, a big rugged rookie who the Panthers believe can develop into one of the best power forwards in the VIJHL, stopped any momentum the Behan goal might have given them scoring just ten seconds later.  It was Kean's first of the season.  And Logan would close out the scoring in the 2nd frame giving the Panthers a rock solid 7-4 lead after two.  Logan's tally would chase Chester to the Wolves cave and he was replaced with Nick Dueck who would be perfect the rest of the way.

Perhaps the biggest roar in the second period was for Costain who dropped the mitts with Wolves Connor Krupa at the 16:12 mark.  The two combatants exchanged blows early but then it was all Costain as he filled in Krupa with some bombs.  But in the end nobody was hurt and the crowd certainly seemed to enjoy the fistic activity.

The only marker of the 3rd period was off the stick of Brett Lervold after Behan had packed the puck to the net however, for all intents and purposes it was simply too little, too late.

Karrer blocked 32 of 36 shots in picking up the win while Chester and Dueck faced 51 shots between them. 

Skerratt was named the games 1st Star while Couglin and Logan were 2nd and 3rd Stars respectively.

The Panthers do not have to wait long to hit the ice as they travel to Oceanside to take on the Generals on Sunday afternoon.  The Club will return back home next Friday night when they host the same Westshore Wolves hockey club, the puck set to drop at 7:30 pm.