They say that all good things must come to an end but for the Peninsula Panthers the ride is getting longer and longer as the team took their 11th consecutive home win last Friday night.
The Panthers took the game over their cross-town rivals, the Victoria Cougars 3-1 in front of a large crowd.
Panthers’ power forward Reece Costain opened the scoring only a minute into the game when he received a pass from the team’s newly acquired forward, Alex Milligan.
Costain burst in on the left side and blasted a high shot past the Cougars’ goal keeper, Connor Beauchamp. With 12 minutes gone in the game and on the power play, 16-year-old Tate Coughlin stretched the lead to 2-0, chasing Beauchamp to the Cougars’ bench as the team switched their goalie to Nathan Hargrave.
The move seemed to give the Cougars some life as Blake Roney got a power play marker of his own, pulling the Cougars to within a goal after the first period.
Late in the second, Sean Buchanan scored on the power play to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead. It turned out to be the last goal of the night.
“Our kids played hard,” said the team’s owner and manager Pete Zubersky.
“We have a big and strong club and if we play a physical and disciplined brand of hockey, I think we make it tough on any team in our league. We need to bring that level of play every night. The games are becoming a lot more meaningful this time of the year.”
The Panthers hope to continue their winning streak at home this Friday night when they host the Saanich Braves at 7:30 p.m.