Pelham Panthers relishing role reversal
Drought over as junior B franchise finds itself near top
The Pelham Panthers are in the unfamiliar position of being hunted — and that’s right where coach Mark Barrick wants them.
After years of looking up from near the bottom of the standings as one of the worst teams in the province, that Panthers are on to prowl with a 9-5 record, and they are feisty, leading the Golden Horseshoe Conference in penalty minutes with 387, 29 more than Niagara Falls.
They were undefeated out of the gate, going 5-0 before a 5-0 loss to conference-leading Niagara Falls.
When he took the job last year, Barrick said he had to change the culture. He’s done that.
They have cooled off a bit since with a 4-4 record, including homeand-home losses to St. Catharines by 7-0 and 5-2.
“We’ve struggled the last few games,” Barrick said. “We started well. We are in a bit of a mid-season slump. We’ve played a lot of hockey. We had our pre-season
tournament, and then we were up in Cochrane.
“Most teams at any level will go through some lulls both physically and mentally. That’s not an excuse.
“Do I think we should have a better record? Yes. Has anybody given up? Absolutely not. We have
a good hockey team. We will settle things down and get back to playing the way we were earlier.
“We have a great dressing room. We have character hockey players. We have changed the stigma with the Panthers from three and four and five years ago.
“We put the work boots on and
come every night and play. Does that show up on the scoreboard every night? Nope. But that’s life. We will keep building and keep working. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
He is quick to praise team owner Tim Toffolo for his persever-
ance. Playing in a tiny antiquated arena made recruiting players to wear the green and black tough. They were trying times.
This year it’s a team with talent up front led by veteran holdover from the lean years Matt Ruigrok of Dunnville. He is tied for 20th in scoring in the league with three goals and 15 assists in 14 games. Ben Evans and Justin Kyler of Niagara Falls are one-two, with 36 and 34 points respectively. Holdyn Lansink of last year’s champions Listowel is third with 29 points.
On the backend, Pelham’s goalies, Nicholas Kidd, and Brandon McCorriston are 11 and 13th in goals against in the league. Kidd has a 2.33 goal against in six games. McCorriston has a 2.65 goals against. Zach Borgiel of Leamington leads the league with a 1.50 goals against.
In the weekend home-andhome, the Falcons played the body, racking up 110 minutes in penalties, including 72 minutes on Friday. The Panthers responded 65 minutes of their own over two games.
Sunday in Pelham, the Panthers gave up a goal 1:10 into the first period after a bad turnover along the boards and never really recovered. The Panthers were outshot 13-1 in the period.
“We are an offensive team that isn’t scoring goals, and everybody is trying to do it on their own,” Barrick said.
“We didn’t generate any offence whatsoever. St. Catharines did a good job. They shut things down. They collapsed in their zone, and we were trying to take it through that, and you can’t do that at this level of hockey. We are a team that can get 20 shots a period when everything is working. It was one of those games. It was ugly.
“We haven’t played our typical game in the last five or six. It’s a combination of things we have to work through.”
In other junior B action Monday, Hamilton hammered Lockport 8-1.
‘‘ “We put the work boots on and come every night and play. Does that show up on the scoreboard every night? Nope. But that’s life. We will keep building and keep working. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
MARK BARRICK
Panthers coach