Nov. 8th vs. Victoria Cougars - Hockey Ops.

Good Evening Hockey Fans,
It’s Friday night once again and so here we are ready to go to war once again with the visiting Victoria Cougars.  Both teams come into the game a bit banged up but that should not impact on this long-time rivalry, one that has gone on for much longer than a decade.  I am going to discuss tonight’s affair at length as we move along however, I first want to chat just a bit about what is happening this week in the rink off the ice as well as an initiative that we have been working at and will occur on Thursday and Friday evenings next week.

Tonight, Island Savings Credit Union is the game sponsor and I know that they are excited to be here and we are naturally excited to have them in the house.  Island Savings is supplying six prizes for the game tonight and we will also hold our “Subway Shoot the Puck” after the ice has been greased at the end of the 2nd period.  If you have a moment, take some time and chat with the employees of the Credit Union who are here tonight.  Island Savings is yet another sponsor of ours who make it possible for the Peninsula Panthers to exist in the community and in the VIJHL and we thank them from our hearts.

Next week we will be doing something that will be a first for our Club.  In the summer I met with Cst. Pat Bryant of the Central Saanich Police Service and over a coffee we discussed the possibility of creating an event which would allow a tip of the hat to the First Nation Youth here on the Peninsula.  All Youth are important to us and we certainly did not want to miss out on any one group and so naturally I loved the idea.  We brain-stormed over the next while and this was followed up with several meetings with North Saanich/Sidney RCMP, Central Saanich Police Service and the Tsawout First Nation.  The meetings were a lot of fun and there were certainly a few giggles as we worked through the details, ideas were flying left and right.  And in the end, here is what will be happening;

On Thursday evening at 6:00 pm members of the two Cop Shops will join in the 1st Annual Ball Hockey Challenge with the Panthers vs. First Nation Youth team.  This game will take place at the Tsawout First Nation Gymnasium located at 7728 Tetayut Rd. in Saanichton.  For any of you who have not been at this facility, it will blow you away.  The Gym is huge and is housed in an Administration Building that is absolutely off the charts.  The facility where the game is being held holds approx. 400-500 people, and everyone involved believe that it will be close to being filled.  If you are not doing anything next Thursday and have time to join us, please come down and enjoy.  There is no charge.

The following night we will play host to the Nanaimo Buccaneers with the puck set to drop at 7:30 pm.  Every single First Nation youth who attends the Ball Hockey Challenge the night before will be admitted into the game that Friday for free.  Wilson’s Transportation will have a bus going around to the four First Nation Reserves to pick up youth who might not be able to secure transportation to the Panorama and at the end of the game these same youth will be transported back home.  We will have an on-ice ceremony which will include First Nation Adam Olson who is the leader of the BC Green Party who will say a few words.  Panthers First Nation player Connor Logan will say a few words and First Nation Lynden Eddy from the Buccaneers and Connor will take the ceremonial face-off with the drop being done by Adam Olson.  A member of the Sidney/North Saanich RCMP will be out in Red Serge while Pat Bryant from the Central Saanich Police Service will be out in his dress uniform.  I will MC the short ceremony. First Nation Addie Elliott will then belt out the National Anthem and after the ice has been cleared, it will be business as usual and hopefully the night will come to a close several hours later with the Panthers on the right side of the scoreboard.  The Buccaneers are currently in 1st place in the North Division of the VIJHL so this should really be a good game.  Come early and join us.  And one final note .......

for those of you concerned about noise levels.  I have asked the First Nation folks to not bring drums due to the size of the Panorama and the fact that there is just nowhere for the noise to go.  The representatives in the meetings from Tsawout were in agreement and so this will not be an issue.

A bit now on some games this past week.  Of course last Friday we spanked the visiting Oceanside Generals by a 4-1 count, full value for the two points.  The Generals are in the midst of shipping a multitude of players out and filling the holes with kids from outside the Province and although I want to see our Club do well in the one remaining game we have with them, I would also like to see them start to put up some W’s in the weeks to follow.  We travelled up to Comox on Saturday evening and were dropped 5-3 when they scored the insurance marker into an empty net.  Our Head/Coach and GM Brian Passmore did not think it was a great effort and was looking for a bounce back game this past Wednesday night when we travelled over to the Westshore to take on the Westshore Wolves at Bear Mountain.  Reece Costain led all point-getters with a goal and two assists and his offensive effort was good enough for him to pick up the contest’s 1st star.  Jackson Skerratt nabbed two helpers in the win and was selected as the game’s 2nd star.  Stephen Heslop went all the way between the pipes and blocked 25 of 28 shots directed his way by the Wolves in picking up the win.  I watched the game quite closely and felt that our kids competed and were full value for the win.  We are banged up right now and had only ten forwards - two under the limit - and six defenceman but it was the right number as we banked an important two points. 

The Wolves travelled to Nanaimo last night and were thumped 8-3 although the shots in the game were almost even in the mid-20’s.  We were watching the results of this game as the Wolves and our Club are currently tied for 2nd in the South of the VIJHL however with their loss up Island, we now have played three less games and hopefully we can do something positive with this advantage.  The Saanich Braves and Kerry Park Islanders are tied and are five points back and there is nothing we would like more than to put a mini win streak together to try and separate ourselves from the pack and inch closer to the top run in the South.

The Victoria Cougars hold a 9-point lead over us but a win in regulation we could pull within 7 points of them which would make it interesting as we are about to reach the 1/2 way mark in the schedule in the next week or two.  There is a lot of hockey to be played and anything can happen if one team gets red hot, we obviously want that team to be us.  This is our 5th meeting of the year.  We have both won in Double Overtime while the Cougars have beat us 7-5 with an empty net goal to seal it as well as a 4-0 win a couple weeks ago right here at the Panorama Recreation Centre.  I expect tonight will have quite an edge to it as usual, I know that our kids really get up each time we play, especially on the Peninsula.

As I mentioned earlier, we are quite banged up tonight.  Ben Meek, Iver Oedegaard, Adam Page, and Brett Sjerven are out and might just be for the next two weeks.  Question marks this evening are Cole Glover and Zack Smith, yes that leaves a lot of holes in our roster.  But for others this will present an opportunity of increased ice and responsibility and I know we will have maximum effort for 60 minutes.

We are just finishing off our marketing campaign for the 2013 year.  We still have a few Sponsor bars, backlits and rinkboards that are available and we would love to move them.  If you are interested or know anyone who is, please talk to Coreen who is taking tickets at the front as you enter and she will help you out.  I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for coming out tonight, for being a sponsor if you are helping us that way.  Without the support we just could not survive as an entity. Cheers!     Pete Zubersky.