{"id":11833,"date":"2015-09-09T08:01:29","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T12:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11833"},"modified":"2015-09-23T10:09:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T14:09:52","slug":"panthers-look-to-bounce-back-from-last-seasons-heartbreaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/panthers-look-to-bounce-back-from-last-seasons-heartbreaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers look to bounce back from last season\u2019s heartbreaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last March, the Intermediate Aurora Panthers looked poised to return to the second round of the Provincial Women\u2019s Hockey League playoffs for the first time since 2012.<\/p>\n

Having barely squeaked into the post-season in sixteenth place, the Panthers were up two games to one on the powerhouse Toronto Aeros in PWHL preliminaries, before collapsing defensively to lose the series in five games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely hurt,\u201d said team captain Brittany Kucera. \u201cWe showed that we could compete with them and win, we could have easily been the ones moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n

They will have to move on from last year\u2019s upset as they prepare for the 2015-16 season, set in motion by a pair of pre-season games this weekend against Leaside and Barrie.<\/p>\n

But when this year\u2019s incarnation of the Panthers squad steps onto the ice for the first game, there will be a number of fresh faces. Last season\u2019s older, more mature roster has been filled with names called up from the midget level, with Kucera the only remaining 1997-born player on the team.<\/p>\n

Two of last season\u2019s top-three scorers on the team, Tara Morning and Becca Chilvers, have graduated from the team and will be suiting up this year for the Tigers of Dalhousie University.<\/p>\n

Both Melissa Black and Taylor Lemmon, instrumental in Aurora\u2019s shutdown defence late last season, are moving on from the Panthers. Black has joined the Union College hockey team in New York, competing in D1, the highest level of NCAA-sanctioned sports.<\/p>\n

Backstopping the Panthers this season will be Frances Tenney and Jenna Allessandrini, both formerly of the Panthers Midget AA team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both strong goaltenders,\u201d said head coach Mike Reier. \u201cThey\u2019re both strong positionally. We\u2019ve got a lot of faith in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reier returns as bench boss for his third season, while the Panthers organization has brought in a new goaltender development coach, Panther alumnus Nicole Kesteris. Kesteris has spent the last four years as an all-star in the CIS, earning a 51-28 record while backstopping the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.<\/p>\n

She also earned the title of 2014 U of T Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place I\u2019d rather be but Aurora, because that\u2019s where it all began,\u201d said Kesteris.<\/p>\n

For stats, schedules, and more information, visit www.pwhl.pointstreaksites.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last March, the Intermediate Aurora Panthers looked poised to return to the second round of the Provincial Women\u2019s Hockey League playoffs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-34R","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-02 04:36:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-10-10.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}