The Port Moody Panthers got a tough lesson in what it's going to take to compete against the league's best.
The Panthers fell 4-3 to the Kodiaks Wednesday night in Aldergrove. The win drops the Panthers record to 1-3, eight points back of the 5-1 Kodiaks who sit atop the Harold Brittain Conference of the Pacific Junior Hockey League. Wednesday's loss comes on the heels of Saturday's 10-4 shellacking at the hands of the Delta Ice Hawks, who hold top spot in the Tom Shaw Conference with a 4-0-1 record.
"It helps us understand where we are. I don't see any reason why we can't be right up there with those guys this year," said Panthers head coach and GM Jamie Jackson.
Aldergrove jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and were up 4-1 heading into the final frame.
"We seem to be writing the same story: We get ourselves in penalty trouble at the beginning of the game," said Jackson. "They scored three power play goals in the first two periods so that was difficult for us."
The Cats clawed their way back, pulling within one with nine minutes remaining and keeping sustained pressure in the Kodiaks' end.
"We had a game plan in the third period and they did a really good job of hunting the game and trying to bring it back and get some points out of it but we just ran out of time," said Jackson.
"I think that Aldergrove is a team that we can beat, we just have to stay out of the box."
Daniel Delbianco led the Panthers attack with a pair of goals, with Sammy Zeinab also finding the net. Delbianco now has five goals and three assists in four games this year to put him in the top 10 in league scoring and leading all defencemen.
"Jordan [Wharrie] and Danny are both super offensive [defencemen] and they're always thinking to jump in the rush so it does really help us create offensive situations," said Jackson.
Wharrie, Kurt Sonne, Adam Rota and Taylor Leger provided the scoring Saturday against the Ice Hawks, who held period leads of 5-0 and 9-1.
"Delta was definitely a snap to attention for us. Things were going fairly well for our group and we all felt pretty confident in the direction of everything and I think we came in there expecting to continue to play the way we had been playing and be in the hockey game and we didn't rise to the occasion of how good Delta really is," said Jackson, who sees no reason to hit the panic button just yet.
"If we weren't getting chances and weren't able to execute some of the things we talk about in practice it would be a different story."
The Panthers were in Richmond Thursday night to take on the Sockeyes and will be back in the Port Moody Arena Saturday to face off against the Grandview Steelers. The puck drop is at 7:45 p.m.
