Sept. 13th vs. Westshore Wolves - Hockey Ops.

Hello Hockey Fans on the Peninsula!

I want to start off by welcoming you all back to the Panorama Recreation Centre tonight for a South Island tilt between your Panthers and the visiting Westshore Wolves.  Last season we split the eight games between us, some of the games featured just about everything you could look for in the game of hockey.  I expect that tonight will be a hard-fought battle as will our season series this year and I also expect that there will be a lot of emotion between these two clubs.  The Wolves are a well-run organization who are in their second year in the VIJHL however, they have a veteran team that know how to compete.  I will discuss more on tonight's match-up a bit later.

Two of our kids have birthday's tonight, 18-year-old Spencer Loverock and 20-year-old Jackson Skerratt.  And Stephen Heslop will be turning 18 years old on Sunday, best wishes to all three of these kids. 

Here we go tonight for our 2nd home game after bouncing the visiting Kerry Park Islanders last Friday by a 6-1 count.  The kids were as rusty as could be the first period, a bit better in the 2nd and a bit better again in the 3rd.  There were some really nice things that happened once we overcame the opening night jitters, passes started to click and we started to look a bit like a team rather than a group of individuals that were involved in a fire drill. If the fact be known, we opened our Main Camp on August 30th, probably two weeks behind everyone else in the VIJHL and then in our only two exhibition games we played some of the rookies but mostly kids that we are looking at for next year or the year after.  Last Friday was a meaningful game as there were points up for grabs however, it was like an exhibition game for us as it was the first time we had played together as a group.

Yesterday we travelled to the Archie Browning and played the Victoria Cougars in a tight affair.  The score was knotted at 5-5 at the end of regulation and after five minutes of 4-on-4 a winner had not yet been decided.  The 2nd Overtime period was also five minutes however this one was 3-on-3.  We elected to go with two forwards - Cole Glover and Will Finlay - and Spencer Loverock on the back end.  The Cougars won the draw by slipping the puck through the wickets of Glover and then went in on a 2-on-1 on Loverock.  A slick pass left a Cougar forward all alone and he made no mistake beating Stephen Heslop high to the glove side.  The celebration was on for the Cougars while our club quietly left the ice however, we managed to garner a single point in the Overtime loss and I believe that we demonstrated to ourselves that we can compete with anybody in the VIJHL.  We play the Cougars in two weeks, once again at the Archie Browning and I expect that we will be a whole lot more comfortable than we were last night.

Tonight we welcome in the Westshore Wolves who currently sit at .500 with a 2-2 record.  The Wolves have several of their top forwards out of the lineup tonight with a variety of injuries and so hopefully we can jump on them early and often.  They really had a stunning comeback on Wednesday evening at the JDF arena when they trailed the Campbell River Storm 5-2 very late in the 3rd frame.  They narrowed the gap to 5-4 with 12 seconds left and a faceoff outside the Storm blueline however, they managed to win the draw, gain the zone and get the puck to the net.  As fate would have it, the puck was deposited in the visitors net with just 3 ticks left on the clock.  In the Overtime, it was all Wolves and they quickly scored in the first minute of the extra frame to get a crazy come-from-behind win.  The Storm threw 70 shots at Wolves the Wolves’ netminder but in the end the Wolves would have the last howl and congrats to them on the big win.

Joey Karrer, our 18-year-old goaltender out of Smithers will get the start tonight after Stephen Heslop started our first two games.  Karrer was noticed at the Cowichan Capitals camp by Brian Passmore and was signed when they released him.  I am really looking forward to seeing this youngster play tonight.  It is hard to judge a goalie in practice but tonight we will get our first chance to get a birds eye-view on how Karrer can perform - watch for that storyline this evening.
 wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the players that have returned this season.  Some of them have not yet hit their stride and that is understandable.  Junior "B" is, in my mind, the toughest level in hockey to manage for a variety of reasons.  Some players are 20 years old and their Junior hockey is in it's final year.  Yet others are 16 or 17 years old and want to get to the next level and beyond.  The Western Hockey League and the various Junior "A" Leagues around the Country are looking to make their rosters better and will be swooping in on Junior "B" players if they can make the Junior "A" squad improve.

Let's look at a couple 19-year-olds - Ben Meek and Cole Glover - and 20-year-old Cody Breitenstein.  Ben played his first year with the Panthers last season and struggled in the early going, but in the final ten games started to really shine.  In the playoffs he banged and crashed and really was an impact player for the club.  This off-season many of the younger players around the VIJHL are on the ice a lot, trying to move up a level.  Ben takes the summer to put a few dollars in the bank and both he and Jackson Skerratt went onto a Commercial Fish boat when the summer started and did not get off until late into August.  They jumped into the Main Camp and both of them felt the little nagging injuries as they tried to get into game shape.  Both were strong and lean but needed cardio and also needed to work the muscles used in the game itself.  I expect that Ben will take a bit longer to round into game shape but look for him around the ten game mark to really take off.  He has the confidence gained from last year's experience to know that he can be a very good player at this level and just a bit of time is what he really needs to hit a higher gear.

Cole Glover has two years of Junior left including this season and he spent much of the summer with an eye on cracking a Junior "A" squad.  Cole was invited to the Burnaby Bulldogs Main Camp however they had a lot of commitments and Cole was left on the outside looking in.  I have watched him in our camp and in the early going and I see a lot of positives.  He is getting some points which is always a bonus however I also see him ripping the puck, going into traffic to make a play and going into the toughest areas of the ice to put himself into scoring position.  I think he will put up 50 points this season and you the fan should be pretty happy about him being back in the lineup.
 
Another Cody, this one of the Breitenstein variety is back after being out in a Junior "A" camp in Saskatchewan.  Cody hails from Hawthorne, California and was brought here last season by former Panthers Head Coach Rob Armstrong.  As you recall, Rob has moved on to take a position with BC Hockey however the club is fortunate that he brought in Cody before his departure.  Cody wears an "A" for the Panthers and a player that I honestly believe is in the top three defencemen in the VIJHL.  Cody has fantastic offensive skills and wants to firm up the defensive end as next season he would like to travel to Europe and play Professional Hockey over there.  I really wish Cody could have come up here as an 18-year-old and believe that he would have only been here for one year before moving to Junior "A" if he had.  Watch him play tonight and enjoy the talent he brings to the ice, he is truly one of the stars in the VIJHL today.

 OK, it's just about time for the puck to drop on what hopefully will be two points for the club tonight.  It is early in the season however, two points now is worth exactly the same thing as two points in February, they are all very important. I want to take this opportunity to thank you, the fan very much for supporting the Peninsula Panthers.  We are still looking for some billets for the team, we would like to add to our group if we can and often this help comes from a late cut out of a WHL camp or Jr. ‘A’ program. It is only possible to jump on this type of opportunity if we have host families for the players.  So if you are interested or know a family who might be, please contact me at any time. We are also looking for more in the way of sponsorship - please contact Tracy Zeisberger if you or someone you know is interested. I hope you all enjoy the game tonight - it is an important one for us to find success to move up into the pack of the South Division of the VIJHL.  Enjoy!     Pete Zubersky