Oct. 11th vs. Victoria Cougars - Hockey Ops.

Good Evening Hockey Fans,

Tonight we welcome in the Victoria Cougars who currently sit way on top of the VIJHL South Division.  I will discuss this game a whole bunch more in just a bit but for now I want to start with some other news with the Club over the past week.
You have undoubedly picked up our 2013/14 Program as you entered the game this evening, it always takes several weeks after the season has started as the final sponsorship is filtering in and of course the coaching staff is nailing down the final lineup.  Coreen does a lot of work on the program and puts her touch on each page.  We try and personalize it as much as possible, here is an example.  If you open the program to page 17 you will see the Bio of Brett Sjerven on the top.  On the opposite page is an article on Nathan Looysen titled, “A Boy and his Dream.”  Nathan and Brett are cousins, Nathan's Mother Allison and Brett's Mother Jo Ann are sisters.  There are many subtle links throughout the Program and although this takes a lot of time to coordinate, it is important to us for tonight and for the rest of this season, but also for the boys when they look back at this Program in the years to come.  We hope you enjoy it and we thank you for your purchase and for supporting the Club.

Last Saturday we travelled to Kerry Park and were short a whole bunch of players for a whole bunch of reasons.  Will Finlay is a first-year student at the University of Victoria and he was finding the load of his courses combined with the commitment of the Panthers just too much to handle.  He left the team earlier last week but came out last Saturday and played what might just be his final game with the Panthers.   Will is living in residence at the University and might skate with the University hockey team on occasion but we won't be seeing his energetic game here for some time.  Perhaps he will look at his work load after Christmas and that might open up opportunity for him out here on the Peninsula, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.  The Peninsula Panthers wish Will Finlay the best of luck and good health as he moves along and decides how hockey will play in his immediate future.
On Wednesday evening Brian Passmore finalized a transaction with the Victoria Cougars which saw the playing rights of 18-year-old forward Jordan Law coming out here on the Peninsula.  Passy had been in discussion with the Cougars brass for a couple days and the agreement came to fruition after that.  Jordan is a hard-working forward and that type of player is the kind we want our lineup full of.  He was the Captain of the Peninsula Midget “AA” squad last season and led that team from wire-to-wire.  Jordan was made aware of the deal around 6:00 pm on Wednesday evening and seemed very excited in his conversation with Passy.  The young fellow went over to see Larry Orr at 7:30 pm and picked up his gear; the wheels were going around pretty quickly I am sure.  He is happy for the opportunity of coming back to his home rink and playing in front of friends and family that he knows and who have supported him throughout his playing days with the Peninsula Minor Hockey Association.  It did not take long for Jordan to get acquainted with his new mates as we travelled up to Nanaimo last night to play the North Division leading Buccaneers squad.  What a great way to get started for the youngster.  He didn't have to sit around and wonder how things would go.  Less than 24 hours after he found out he was coming out to the Peninsula, Jordan was on the bus heading North with the boys and only a couple hours later was warming up and then taking a regular shift with the team.  And now tonight he has his first chance at showing his old team that they made a mistake in letting him go.  I'm sure Jordan is pretty pumped up tonight, but after everything settles down I'm sure he will enjoy his weekend and then get ready for a good week of practice before next weekend's games.  Jordan will be wearing #21 tonight and for the rest of the season - keep an eye out for him.

This was not the only news of the week.  John Wilson, who owns the Club with Coreen and me, was appointed the Alternate Governor of the Victoria Grizzlies Hockey Club.  John is investing in the Grizzlies and I am pretty sure that our relationship with the Junior A team will improve quite a bit.  Congrats to John and good luck with the Grizzlies.

I wanted to take a bit of time to thank several of our key volunteers who quite often get overlooked.  Ken Charlish is over in the Penalty Box area and had been the score keeper for the Club for since 1999.  Ken is as solid as they come and this is a spot that so often gets overlooked by our fans.  In the box with him tonight is Pam Calton who fills in whenever we are in need.  I emailed Pam yesterday and she was there for us in a flash, thank you.  We are looking for a volunteer who would like to work in the box as a timekeeper with Ken and if you are interested or if you know somebody that is, please let me or Coreen know.

Dennis Varga has also been with us since 1999 and he is the fellow who helps control the door after you have purchased your ticket from Coreen.  Dennis has done a lot of things in the community on the Peninsula and has been as loyal as they come in terms of helping out our Club.  We wanted to take a bit of time to acknowledge his efforts with the team.

Last night we travelled and played up in Nanaimo, the North Division leaders.  Nanaimo has a Club that is very well coached and disciplined and they have racked up a lot of wins already in this very young VIJHL season.  We have been seen the starts to our games be very slow and the coaching staff have been trying to correct this situation, in fact discussed it in a meeting earlier on in the week.  Against teams like the Bucs and the Victoria Cougars, 40 minutes of hard work is not going to get it done.  The game was a real treat although we came out on the wrong side of a 4-3 count.  Joey Karrer got the start in goal, his Mother had travelled from Smithers to see him and to watch him play and he made some key saves over the evening.  It came down to the final seconds when Reece Costain found himself at the side of the net with the Bucs tender out of position however, the puck was bouncing and it was a night of would-haves, could-haves.  The Bucs move the puck better than we do, they get it from their defence to the forwards quicker and better than we do and their wingers do a job on the walls in their own end WAY better than our wingers do.  But we have as much talent and we certainly have the size and we are only at Game 12 tonight so I am really positive about what we have going.

Tonight Stephen Heslop will get the start and I expect him to be stellar in goal for our Club.  Zack Smith and Brandon Story are out, two guys that we count on to put pucks in the net.  Grayson Vickers will once again be up playing forward and I would expect we will see another D up playing F.  Cody Allison missed last night as he was at UVIC however, he too will be going.  Law looked good last night even though he is a bit under the weather and I know that he is looking forward to getting back at it again tonight.  I expect that we will play 60 minutes of hockey and this one tonight should be a real good and entertaining game.  The Cougars have yet to taste a loss however, we have had two tight games with them, one that went into double overtime and there is nothing that we would like better than to put a #1 in their loss column after this one is over.  No, not a do-or-die situation but a measuring stick for a Club that is still learning on the fly.

OK then, once again I hope that you all enjoy the Program Coreen has put out there tonight and as importantly, I hope you find a great evening of entertainment.   Bring a friend next Friday, let’s work together to fill our barn. Thank you for your support, we could not do it without you!  Pete Zubersky