The Storm and Peninsula Panthers squared off in a home and home series, with the first game going friday at the Panorama arena. The Storm were without the services of Brandon Tidy and Chase Hailey, but got Rob Iszak back.
As for the Panthers, they continued to shuffle the deck as they prepare to defend their Patterson Memorial Trophy. GM Jackson Penny added Trevor Yee from the Saanich Braves for James and Chris Miller, then picked up Marshall Brome from the Delta Ice Hawks of the PIJHL.
Yee had 88 pts while never missing a game in 2 seasons with the Braves (96 games) and was the Braves captain coming into the season.
Brome is not nearly as offensive, with 14 goals and 31 points in 91 games in Delta, but brings a hard-nosed approach and some grit.
The first period of friday's game was very close. The Panthers held a two goal lead before Jordan Suzuki cut it in half. After Kyle Peterson restored the Cats two goal lead by beating Tyler Bachmeier, Andrew Gaiga put a rocket past goalie Nick Babich to once again close the gap to one. But a late goal by Peninsula's Joe Densmore with just over a minute remaining doubled up the score and the Panthers never looked back, winning 11-3. Gaiga with the other Storm goal. Evan Campbell the hat trick for Peninsula, Cole Peterson with 2. Marshall Brome scored in his debut.
On sunday, it was another tight one in the first. The Panthers again took a two goal lead once again, with goals from Trevor Yee and Joe Densmore but unlike friday, that would be all the scoring until early in the second. Jordan Suzuki beat Brady Berisoff with a beautiful wrist shot from just inside the blueline. The Storm would continue battling, but the Panthers expanded their lead by 2 more, making it 4-1 as Densmore scored his second and Kyle Peterson found the back of the net.
Andrew Gaiga fired one short handed to bring the Brindy back to life, but it was short-lived. The Panthers proved to be too deep, and this time it was Densmore who scored the hat trick, his final goal one that would have made any highlight reel, and short handed to boot.
On the breakaway, he pulled the puck back on his stick, sucked Ryan Fairgray deep into his net and then slipped it into the wide open left side of the crease. Then Corey Allen put a dagger in te hearts of the Storm faithful by scoring with 1 second remaining in the second, making it 6-2.
Jordan Suzuki would sniped on the power-play to cut the lead in half, showing the patience of Job by waiting out a forward who slid to block the shot, then skating in and snapping one past Berisoff. It wasn't enough, as Christian Stephenson's goal on the PP with under 2 minutes remaining was the cing on the cake in a Panthers 7-3 win.
Some bright spots in the game was the play of Jesse Spooner and Alex Benjestorff among the rookies up front, with Rivington making some good decisions on the backend to complement the play of Suzuki and Gaiga.
One area I'd love to see the Storm continue to work on is their transition game. Often times the defense will put a nice pass on the forward's stick in the neutral zone, only to see the forward babble the pass or over skate it. Mistakes like these are costing this team a chance to compete, and a correction in this area could result in more red lights behind the opposition net, less behind the Storm's and even more importantly, more time spent in the opposition's end. I can't even begin to count how much it's hurt this team on their 6 game slide.
From a broadcasting standpoint, Brandon Tidy did a remarkable job filling in for Joe O'Shea on color. Excellent insight from a very mature 17 year old. I apologize to any of our listeners for sunday's broadcast. With a few minutes remaining, the computer that controlled our broadcast froze up, putting us off air for 12 minutes. Thankfully, we were back on by the start of the third.
Next up for the Storm is a game in Mill Bay against the Kerry Park Islanders thursday. Pregame at 7:15 on 99.7 the River. The Islander's Zach Fridella is our guest in the first intermission.
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