Jan. 10th vs. Victoria Cougars - Hockey Ops.

Good Evening Hockey Fans on the Peninsula,

Thank you for coming out and cheering us on this evening for this big game against the visiting Victoria Cougars.  The Cougars were in fine form last night blasting the Kerry Park Islanders 7-1 in one of two games in the VIJHL on the evening.  In the other game, the Northern Division rivalry of Campbell River Storm and Nanaimo Buccaneers hooked up once again and this time the Storm conducted a major smack down on their foes, tuning them up too by an 11-3 count.  But more on tonight’s game and some big happenings around the Club over the past week.

As you recall, we struggled somewhat last Friday against the Oceanside Generals however, came out on top 4-2.  There was a problem with the Zamboni and the final period took on the look of a Winter Classic as ice conditions were somewhat less than ideal.  This played into the hands of the Generals but as I said, we squeaked out the win and that is what matters most.  And we bested the Westshore Wolves on Wednesday evening at Bear Mountain Arena by a 6-4 score.  I thought that we did not play very well in both of these games but managed to come out on top and that is what good teams do on occasion.  But this level of play has to pick up tonight as we go for our 11th straight home-ice win.  The last time we were bounced at home was way back on October 25th when we were spanked by the same Victoria Cougars 4-0.  Part of the 11-game streak was a win against the Cougars and if we want to extend the streak tonight we will have to play a whole lot better than our play as of late.

Head Coach and General Manager of the Hockey Club, Brian Passmore was extremely busy over the past couple weeks working the telephone lines trying to improve our team before midnight tonight, the major carding deadline.  And then yesterday afternoon around 3:00 pm Passy pulled the trigger on the biggest trade in the Club’s history.  At least it was the biggest in my mind, certainly since 1999 when Coreen and I initially purchased the Peninsula Panthers.  Our Club moved a pair of 18-year-olds including Nick Kean and Adam Page.  Kean had three goals and four assists for a total of 7 points as a power forward while Page had one goal, two assists and three points playing both forward and defence.  But the numbers don’t tell the story on these two guys.  Nick Kean is going to be a big horse in this league and I think he will put up some really powerful numbers next year.  As for Adam, he can play forward or defence and is a gritty kid who will do anything to win.  He wears his heart on his sleeve and has thrown some of the biggest hits on the Panthers this season.  Both these guys are wonderful people and strong players and the Islanders have themselves a couple kids that will really pay dividends down the road.

We want our time to be now.  I believe there are six teams in the VIJHL that can cause some damage.  It looks like Oceanside Generals will most likely not be involved in the post-season and are struggling to put up wins.  They trail the Saanich Braves by a good margin and although it is still mathematically possible, I am pretty darn sure that the fat lady has already sang the song on this one.  The Saanich Braves have been on the wrong side of a lot of lopsided scores as of late and although I’m not really sure if they are buying or selling, they look like a good bet to finish last in the VIJHL South Division.  If the final game in the VIJHL was tonight, the Generals would be knocked out and the Braves would travel to meet up with the Campbell River Storm in the 1st round.  The Storm have built one heck of a team and I just don’t see how the Braves could come out on top of this series.  The Islanders have made some moves and look like they are taking a peek at what their lineup might look like next season.  I tip my hat to them, we did the same thing last season to try and put ourselves into a position of being buyers on the deadline and that is just what we were.

So this brings us to our acquisition of two key players to our lineup.  Coming to the Panthers from the Islanders to complete the transaction are a couple of 20-year-old forwards in the form of Alex Milligan and Tylor Branzsen.  Both of these guys played in the game on Wednesday for the Panthers and after getting traded 200 minutes earlier showed that they will be key players in regards to any protracted playoff run the Panthers might just find themselves involved in.  Branzsen completed a pretty play for a goal in the 3rd period while Milligan scored once and added two helpers.

He was also named the 1st star so all-in-all it was a pretty darn good start for both kids.  Both kids were very excited to join the Panthers and want nothing else than to win a Championship.  And the kids on our Club were excited as well.  You could see a little extra energy in the dressing room as the Panthers waited to go out for warm-ups Wednesday night.  Unfortunately that extra energy translated into a very sloppy effort, one that was unexpected.  “I thought our Club would really come out popping on all cylinders but the exact opposite happened.  But we won the game which was sealed when Milligan scored into the empty net and a win is a win is a win.  This was a big trade and perhaps we didn’t have the focus that was needed however, tonight will be a different situation and I expect that our guys will play a lot harder and with more intention.”

Milligan leads the entire VIJHL in goals score and he has tallied 30 times already.  He adds 20 assists for 50 points which after the win last night left him in 5th spot in League Scoring.  Connor Logan sits in 2nd with 56 points however, Milligan could make up the difference with a couple good games.  Branzsen is a gritty two-way player who has also shown a bit of a knack for scoring.  He has 34 points which includes 14 goals and 20 assists.  This point total has him tied for 19th spot in league scoring.  Yes, the Club is certainly pushing some of the right buttons to at least contend in the post-season and it is very clear that they want to do more than that.

OK, let’s now look a bit at what tonight might bring.  We sit a full 10 points behind the Cougars at this point.  They are comfortably in 1st and we are the same but in 2nd spot, 10 points up on the Westshore Wolves.  A win tonight would pull us within 8 points of the Cougars however, there will be only 11 games on tap after this game so for all intents and purposes, it will be a very tough chore to catch them for the #1 seed in the playoffs. 

Spencer Loverock returns to the line-up after a couple long months of sitting on the side.  And Brett Sjerven is also back in after being out of the lineup on Wednesday.  It looks like Iver Oedegaard might be the odd person out of the lineup tonight.  He had played seven or eight great games but in Westshore seemed to get back into the routine of not banging and crashing and there is just simply not enough room on the ice for any players to be loafing at this point in the season.  We are deep on defence and now even at forward and so players will cut themselves out of the lineup.

Well, this is being written late on Thursday night and so by game time tomorrow we might just have another forward in the lineup.  We are not interested in a Defenceman or a Goalie and our focus is entirely on the forward position.  We have right up until midnight this date to pull off a trade and last year at this time we made a deal with the Saanich Braves just as the Victoria Cougars and Saanich Braves game was ending in Archie Browning.  I wonder out loud if there could be a repeat of last year except with Saanich offering the Peninsula Panthers an olive branch.  Time will tell, enjoy!! 
Pete Zubersky