The Pelham Panthers snapped a 4 game losing streak Sunday afternoon with a 5-2 victory over the Cambridge Redhawks, avenging an 8-0 drubbing from when the teams last met on September 14th. The win came on the heels of a 3-2 overtime loss to the Caledonia Corvairs on Saturday night in which the Panthers, despite the result, played one of their strongest games of the season. With the win on Sunday afternoon, the Panthers pick up 3 of 4 points on the weekend against a pair of formidable opponents and improved to 5-12-4-0. With the loss, the Redhawks fall to 11-8-1-1.
After a tight and physical opening frame, the game would open up late in the first after both teams received minors within 30 seconds of each other resulting in a 4 on 4 situation. Dylan Leslie would take advantage of the extra space when he beat Cambridge goalie Brandon Balcar with just 10 seconds remaining in the period to open the scoring for the Panthers. Recent addition, Thomas Sefton, who spent last year with the Panthers, tallied an assist on the play for his first point since being reacquired by the team. The Redhawks would come out strong for the start of the second, forcing Pelham netminder Logan Snyder to make multiple impressive saves. After the Panthers would successfully kill off one penalty, the Redhawks would take advantage of a too many men penalty on Pelham to even the score at one. After the Panthers were forced to kill off another penalty, Cambridge’s Josh Kaufman was sent to the box for slashing near the period’s midpoint. On the ensuing powerplay, Cooper Drennan would rip a shot past Balcar at 11:19 to retake the lead for the Panthers. The lead would be short lived however, as the Redhawks would respond less than a minute later at 12:13 to tie the game back up at 2. After Pelham was called for a roughing penalty at 13:57, Cambridge went out for the fourth powerplay of the period looking to take the lead. Instead it was Leslie for the Panthers who took advantage of a Cambridge mistake to bury a shorthanded goal for his second of the game to take a 3-2 lead. With his performance on Sunday, Leslie now leads the team in both goals and points. After the Panthers failed to take advantage of a powerplay at the start of the third, Ryan Wercholaz would be hooked while on a breakaway, resulting in a penalty shot being awarded at 5:27. On the attempt, Wercholaz would make a quick move to the backhand before putting the puck past Balcar to extend the lead to two. The Panthers would be effective at shutting down the Redhawks for the remainder of the game, only allowing 8 3rd period shots. The Redhawks would call a timeout at 15:45 of the period and would pull Balcar early for the extra attacker. Jack Havers would take advantage of the empty Cambridge net to ice the victory for Panthers with an empty net goal at 17:35. Snyder would turn away an impressive 39 of 41 shots in the winning effort.
Next week, the Panthers travel up to Caledon on Saturday night for an 8:00pm clash with the Bombers. The Panthers will return home Sunday evening for their Annual Teddy Bear Toss versus the Fort Erie Meteors. Fans are invited to bring a teddy bear or other stuffed animal to throw on the ice following the Panthers first goal. The game is at a rare 6:00 pm (not 2:45) at Accipiter Arena inside the Meridian Community Centre.
