Panthers remain winless dropping yet another heart-breaker

18-year-old Tom Dakers was playing in his first regular season game this season for the Peninsula Panthers and he undoubtedly did not expect to see as much ice as he saw during the game Friday evening at the Panorama Recreation Centre.  Dakers took a regular shift as well as taking up power play and penalty kill minutes in a 3-1 Panthers loss at the hands of the visiting Victoria Cougars.  And the loss was more costly than just dropping the points as veteran defencemen Spencer Loverock and Kyle Richardson exited  the contest early with upper body injuries.  The two joined rookie Trevor Owens who is also nursing an upper body injury but is set to return to practice on Monday.

The Cougars outshot the Panthers 10-4 in the 1st frame and clearly outclassed the home squad during this time.  But 19-year-old Californian Jacob Krupp was strong between the pipes for the Panthers turning aside a couple great chances to keep the score knotted at 0-0. 

It did not take the visitors long in the 2nd frame to light the lamp behind Krupp at the 1:05 mark.  Sam McMullen was helped by a fortunate bounce at the side of the lanky target and wasted no time depositing it to the back of the net.  And it was McMullen once again who hit paydirt six minutes later when the Panthers failed to move the puck out the right side of the defensive zone on four separate occasions.  But each time the puck squirted past the winger and out to the point and eventually it found its way to McMullen who made no mistake.  The two teams traded chances and it was the Panthers who seemed to pour it on and although they outshot the Cougars 11-10, they could not beat Cougars' Goaltender Grant Payne.

17-year-old Rookie Mitchell Newman opened the scoring just 1:10 into the final stanza getting a tally from right in close.  The goal was Newman's first in Junior Hockey and an important one as it brought he and his mates to 2-1 with 19 minutes to play.  The Panthers and Cougars went up and down for several minutes but after a week clearing attempt in the Panthers zone, it would be Cougars' Howard Howden who would put an insurance marker past Krupp who really had no chance on the play.  Both teams had several other chances but when the final buzzer sounded the final would read Cougars 3 Panthers 1.

The visitors threw 34 shots at Krupp while Payne was good on 20 of 21 shots directed his way.  McMullen, Krupp and Newman were named the games three stars on the night.

"I thought we played a pretty solid game," explained Head Coach Grant Sjerven.  For the first time this year we remained disciplined for the entire 60 minutes and I thought that we were in a position to win when it was a 2-1 game midway through the 3rd.  We used our entire bench tonight and everyone contributed.  Krupp was solid, we need that from our goaltender every single night.  I liked how some of the young guys are starting to pay a price.  Our guys were in the shot lanes and I remember Newman blocking at least two blasts.  I was really happy to see the young fellow nail down his first goal and I would have loved it to have been in a win.  We are getting better each time out."

With the loss, the Panthers remain winless but for the most part the games have been tight and several have been winable.  The Club travels to Oceanside for a Sunday afternoon game and will then head to Westshore on Wednesday to take on a hungry Wolves team.  The Panthers will be back at home next Friday night when they host the Kerry Park Islanders for a 7:30 pm start.