Oct. 4th vs. Westshore Wolves - Hockey Ops

Hello Hockey Fans on the Peninsula!

Thank you for coming out once again tonight to watch as we do battle with the visiting Westshore Wolves. That's right, those same Wolves are in for their third visit of this very young season - this is only our 5th home game.  It is a bit of an anomaly in terms of VIJHL scheduling however, they are a very good and older Club and we will have our hands full once again tonight.

The Wolves hosted the Kerry Park Islanders on Wednesday evening and ended up winning that game 3-2. The Islanders opened a 2-0 lead but the Wolves hung in there and scored the winner in the 3rd period breaking a 2-2 deadlock and moving two points ahead of our Club and into 2nd spot in the Southern Division of the VIJHL. We play the Wolves tonight and then travel to Kerry Park to play the Islanders, so I believe we will have our hands more than full.

I wasn't sure that I had a whole bunch to talk about this evening however, as a week unfolds it always amazes me how things change in the world of the Peninsula Panthers. We currently have 22 players on our roster - most teams have more than that with some carrying as many as 25, which is the maximum allowed under the rules. We are allowed to dress 20 players and so with our Club, we will have two players sitting on the sidelines for a variety of reasons. In a couple of the early games we had an injury but had to scratch a player who was healthy and this is not a good situation for the players. Obviously they want to play in the games but it allows the coaches to send messages to each player who is scratched - that message being you have to play harder than you are. There have been no healthy scratches for a number of games as our Captain Brett Sjerven and 20-year-old Brandon Story have been out with various injuries.  Iver Oedegaard also was banged up two weeks ago and he too has been out for a bit, although I do expect him back in the lineup tonight.

Alright then, let's take a closer look at tonight's action and see what the Hockey Gods are doing in terms of the Peninsula Panthers.  Stephen Heslop will be getting the start tonight, his first taste of action against the Wolves this season. Joey Karrer played in the other two contests against our rivals and managed to backstop our Club to a 7-4 win and a 3-3 overtime draw.  Stephen was just AP'ed with the Victoria Grizzlies this past week and so I would think he will be quite keen tonight in showing that he deserved the affiliation with the BCHL Club and I expect that he will be sharp this evening.

We got a bit of a surprise on Tuesday night after practice when #26 Will Finlay walked into the coaches office and told them that his workload at the University of Victoria is a bit overwhelming and that he is forced to give up the game he loves.  I hate to see this happen as I know that Will loved to be out there with the team and I really saw him as a key forward for the Club as we moved along.  I always have felt that kids have a long time before they have to make decisions and I would love to see him playing hockey and going to school.  I believe that when you are 50 years old, it really does not matter a lick if you are 49 or 51 and so one extra year taking your time in school and playing the game you love will give you memories that last for a lifetime. We will keep Will carded in case he has a change of heart, but my heart is with him and whatever he and his family decides is best will be supported 100% by our hockey Club. That's 1 scratch.

Brandon Story is still hurting and will not be in the lineup once again this weekend. I know this is killing this young fellow as he was looking so good to start the season.  Once he is ready to roll it will take him a bit more time but he will get there, and when he does we will be excited to get him back in the lineup.  I believe you will see Sjerven and Oedegaard skating tonight but....that's 2 scratches.

Cody Allison had a wisdom tooth out on Monday and has some big tests at the University of Victoria tonight and so will not be in the lineup.  I think he will be back tomorrow night when we travel to Kerry Park but for tonight he will be missed a ton.  Cody is an energy guy and fills a lot of roles on the hockey Club and it is these type of soldiers that allow a team to put wins up on the board.  That's 3 scratches.

To me, the hard luck story of the year for our Club is Reece Costain.  Not even close, Reece is the hardest hitting player in the entire VIJHL however, he is also a very honest player, honest to a fault.  I saw him get rocked last Friday night, get up and pat the player who nailed him on the behind.  As you might recall he was whistled for a hit to the head on a check that many of you spoke to me about between periods.  The referee called a two-minute penalty for elbowing - I thought the check was a clean one - and then the linesman skated over and after some conversation it became two minutes for a hit to the head and a 10-minute misconduct.  He was whistled for the same call against the Westshore Wolves a couple weeks ago and I discussed this call with the brass of the Wolves. They too felt that this was clean, just hard. He hit a Victoria Cougar in week two, same thing....hard and clean but received the same call. Reece is now suspended for 2 games and I honestly feel for the young fellow.  I know how badly he wants to be in the lineup helping the team.  I know his father was going to come out to Victoria for a couple games this weekend and so I would guess that his trip will be put off for a bit until Reece is back in.  That's 4 scratches.

Zack Smith is hurting with a groin strain and did not practice this week however, he may be able to go on Saturday evening in Kerry Park, we shall see.  Smitty is key to the Club as he has the natural goal-scoring ability and we will miss him tonight.  That's 5 scratches.

Tonight we are most likely bringing up three AP's from Midget "AA". 16-year-old Koby Hale and 17-year-old Kai Turner are called up from the Peninsula Midget Club while Grayden Houle is a call-up from the Saanich Midget "AA" program.  Koby played two games last weekend while Kai and Grayden will be seeing their first action this season.  As you might recall, Kai played some games with us last year as a 16-year-old while Grayden was AP'ed with the Saanich Braves Junior "B" Club and saw quite a number of games with them.  As I said, we did not think we had much news but plenty occurred in the past several days. 

Yesterday we assisted at Beacon Auto Parts in Sidney on McDonald Park Road in a car wash in support of “Cops for Cancer.”  Cody Breitenstein, Grayson Vickers, Kyle Richardson, Joey Karrer, Spencer Loverock and Ben Meek all showed up and washed vehicles for a three-hour period.  I know that the people at Beacon Auto Parts were really happy to have our kids out helping out their business, helping out the cause and I just wanted to make a special effort to thank these six kids for taking part of their day out for a really good cause. 
Next week we will travel to Nanaimo to take on the Buccaneers on Thursday evening and will be back at home next Friday night when we host the Victoria Cougars in our home building for the first time this season.  We have our Program into the printers right now so will break that out for that big game.

I do hope you enjoy the program when it comes out, it is always a tough time of year for Coreen as she puts in a ton of time and effort to make sure that it is a quality product - one that our fans and sponsors will enjoy.

OK, get ready for some Panthers action as the curtain is just about to go up and the puck is set to go down.  Thank you for your continued support.     Pete Zubersky