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Peninsula Panthers' season ends in sudden death match

Peninsula peppered the Parksville goalie Feb. 16 but missed a chance to extend their hockey season.
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The puck slips past Peninsula Panthers’ goalie Alex Olson as the Oceanside Generals from Parksville upended the local squad 5-2 in the Feb. 16 sudden death wildcard game. The loss ended the Panthers’ season while the Generals enter the first round of the VIJHL playoffs.

Peninsula peppered the Parksville goalie with shot after shot Monday night but could only muster two goals and missed a chance to extend their hockey season as they fell, 5-2.

The Oceanside Generals came to the Panorama Recreation Centre Monday night (Feb. 16), to face the Peninsula Panthers in a Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League (VIJHL) wildcard game.

A win in the sudden-death match would propel one of the teams into the first round of the playoffs. A loss would end their season.

Peninsula (15-30) out-shot Oceanside 58-23 on the night, yet Gens’ goalie David Anderson was there to block them. It didn’t help that Peninsula would hit on his chest pad, glove or miss the net entirely. On a few occasions, Peninsula missed empty-net chances — and that seemed to be the way things were going for the squad that night.

Oceanside’s Travis Flug and Keagan Fedorko opened the scoring. Peninsula’s Sean Buchanan added one with six seconds left in the first period, assisted by Kai Turner and Braeden Pearce.

In the second period, Logan Savard would score what would turn out to be the winner for the Gens, who came into the game with a record of 7-36-2.

Chase Gaudreault added the Gens’ fourth tally and Peninsula’s Spencer Loverock scored his team’s final goal of the season, unassisted.

Flug added the empty-netter late in the third period to seal the victory.

Oceanside advanced to play the Campbell River Storm on Feb. 18. The Storm, at 39-4-1, hold the league’s second best record next to the Victoria Cougars (42-5-1), who play Kerry Park.

Follow the VIJHL playoffs at vijhl.com.

The Panthers’s Kyle Richardson was awarded Monday night with a League Community Award. Peninsula also won the Grant Peart Award for the Most Disciplined Team.

The local team holds an informal skate this Sunday. The Panthers also held their year-end team awards night on Feb. 14. Turner and Josh Poland shared the team’s Most Improved Player award and Olson was named team MVP.

The Panthers’ spring training camp is set for April 17 to 19.