Young Panthers bounced 8-2 in Regular Season opener

A large partisan crowd filtered into the Panorama Recreation Centre on Friday evening hoping to see the local Peninsula Panthers paste the visiting Westshore Wolves in their Home Opener.  The clubs completed their warm-up and then as the Zamboni greased the ice the players from both squads retreated to their respective dressing rooms to do their final preparations prior to the opening faceoff.  For the Wolves it would prove to be their 6th game including exhibition and a Regular Season win just two days earlier.  And for the Panthers, it would be their first action against an opponent having chose to forgo exhibition play.

The Wolves came back onto the ice and waited patiently while the Panthers players were introduced.  This was followed by Grant Reid who owns and operates the three McDonald's Restaurants on the Peninsula and a Corporate sponsor of the Panthers who has partnered with the Club to bring the "Player of the Week" program.  Clayton Butler, who plays Minor Hockey on the Peninsula, belted out the National Anthem and it was time for the puck to drop.

The Wolves wasted no time and opened up a commanding 4-0 lead after 20 minutes were in the books. Tyler Smith, Duncan Cochrane, Nicholas Polomark and Kyle Richter all managed to tally against 17-year-old Will Harvey who undoubtely has seen better days between the pipes.  The Panthers seemed unorganized and sloppy and clearly looked like a group that had not seen any game action.

In the 2nd stanza there seemed to be a bit more life in the Club and although they outshot the Wolves 11-7 in the period, it was the visitors who outscored the home boys by a 3-1 count to extend the lead to 7-1 after forty minutes.  Young Chase O'Keefe, Cory Hatcher and Brett Carpendale all managed to light the lamp while Panthers Rylan Ball responded to beat Riley Welyk.

The Wolves Richter scored a short-handed marker at the 14:07 mark of the third period but it would be Ball to close out the scoring when the veteran Panthers player notched his 2nd of the game with only ten seconds left on the clock.  Both goaltenders went the distance with Welyk blocking 24 of 26 shots while Harvey was good on 14 of 22 directed his way.

"We got spanked on the scoreboard but I actually saw some really good things out there tonight," said Pete Zubersky.  "I know Will Harvey can stop the puck and tonight I think it was a young goaltender making his first Junior appearance and he struggled.  We spoke for a long time after the game, he's a great kid and he will rebound quickly from this.  I have seen this happen to a lot of young players before and it's all part of the development."

"Zubersky continued, "We played tentative for a whole bunch of minutes tonight as there are 14 rookies on this squad.  But I honestly believe that we are going to get a lot better in a hurry.  We can get a couple practices under our belt and then we play a couple games next weekend.  We will be a much different Club in several weeks and I think an exciting one."

Grant Sjerven was in his first game behind the bench at this level and he was positive as well.  "The Wolves scored five power-play goals and a shorty so obviously that is something we cannot allow.  5-on-5 they only had two so we have to have discipline and that is something we will address this coming week.  It was my first time behind the bench at this level so I obviously don't have anything to compare it to but I really believe we will be just fine."

The Panthers will welcome in the Victoria Cougars next Friday night so the task will not get any easier.  They will then travel to Kerry Park on Saturday to face the Kerry Park Islanders in their home opener.  Hopefully there will be a lot less wide eyes next time around.

The puck drops at the Panorama Recreation Centre when the Cougars come to town at 7:30 pm.