Panthers upended in Game 1

Thursday, February 29, 2024
Archie Browning Arena
Esquimalt, British Columbia

The Peninsula Panthers have to show a lot more grit, determination and smarts heading into Game 2 of their Best-of-7 series against the Victoria Cougars after getting bounced 7-4 Thursday night at the Archie Browning Arena.  Scoring for Panthers were Lukas Preweda, Ethan Lingard, Carson Harris and Luka Jansen van Rensburg which was more than enough to win Game 1.  But mistakes, and perhaps not showing the willingness to go to the wall for several of the players, seemed to make the difference.

"We started fine and just three minutes in, the Cougars came down on a 3-on-2. Ty Barrie was the first forward back and he picked up their 3rd guy and the play was over," explained Panthers Owner Pete Zubersky in the parking lot after the game.  "Barrie was smart, he didn't have to skate all over the ice and he made a play that probably nobody will have seen.  A minute later, they came down on another 3-on-2. Preweda worked his tail off but skated to the puck carrier that was already being taken care of by our defenceman. He worked hard, but they moved the puck and it was in our net. We have now played 48 games and that is a mistake that simply can't happen at this point of the year. We gave away a number of goals on simple mistakes. Look at the scores in the other South series: 2-0 and 2-1 between Westshore and Saanich. We had guys who did not play physical and so our opponent felt they could pound us with impunity and they did just that. We have a lot of really nice kids on our Club, good kids. But if they don't compete, this series will be a short one. We simply did not compete tonight. We scored four goals; that's enough to win a hockey game. We are not going to score eight. As a group we were not willing to pay the price tonight. I expect that from the Goaltender on out, we'll see a big difference in compete level on Friday night."

Game 2 is set to go at the Panorama Recreation Centre on Friday night, the puck will drop at 7:30 pm. 'Compete" will be the buzzword for evening.