Falling by eight goals or by one equates into the same in the standings -- a loss. The sting of the former just lingers a bit longer.
After getting bombed 10-2 Thursday by the still-unbeaten Richmond Sockeyes, the Port Moody Black Panthers rebounded Saturday to slip by a fraction, 5-4, to the Delta Ice Hawks at PoMo Rec Complex.
The defeats dropped the Cats to 4-4-4 in third place in the five-team Harold Brittain Conference, while the Sockeyes sit at 11-0-0 and the Ice Hawks 9-2-1-1 as the top teams in the 10-squad Pacific International Jr. B hockey league.
The Cats were simply over-matched by the surging Sockeyes, who raced to a 3-0 first-period lead, pumped in five powerplay goals and outshot PoMo 55-19 in the game. The Cats also took 51 penalty minutes compared with Richmond's 28.
Things were far more balanced Saturday, when the Cats battled back from a 4-1 deficit to pull within one at 4-3 before surrendering an empty net goal, then adding another with 25 ticks to go to lose by one. Shots were tighter at 38-34 for the Hawks.
"The flame just wasn't there [against the Sockeyes]," said Black Panthers general manager Ron Luniw. "The penalties told the story. These are the two strongest teams in the league, in my opinion, and we came out and played our game against Delta. It was a very fast-paced, entertaining game and we came close at the end to winning it."
Next, the Cats host the Ridge Meadows Flames on Saturday at PoMo Rec Complex, 7:45 p.m.
ICING: Luniw made a pair of key moves last week when he acquired a pair of 20-year-old defencemen -- Joey Weilmeier and Matt Bevilacqua -- from the Ridge Meadows Flames, who are struggling with a young nucleus and have won just two of their first 12 games thus far. "Latching on to two 20-year-old defenceman in this league? Wow," Luniw gushed. "They're two solid, veteran guys who are definitely going to help us."
