{"id":35728,"date":"2025-01-23T17:39:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T22:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35728"},"modified":"2025-01-23T17:39:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T22:39:29","slug":"weekend-sweep-of-nepean-and-kingston-preps-panthers-for-showdown-with-chinese-national-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/weekend-sweep-of-nepean-and-kingston-preps-panthers-for-showdown-with-chinese-national-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend sweep of Nepean and Kingston preps Panthers for showdown with Chinese National Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Central York Panthers will carry a high degree of confidence and momentum into their showdown with the Chinese National Women\u2019s Hockey team on January 26 at the ACC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a significant exhibition game circled on the calendar, the Panthers needed to sweep their weekend home-stand versus the Nepean Wildcats and the Kingston Icewolves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The momentum needed to face the Chinese National team this Sunday started last Saturday afternoon when Central York solved the riddle of Wildcats\u2019 goaltender Zoe Clich\u00e9. The athletic netminder stole a game from the Panthers in the nation\u2019s capital on October 27 when she made 37 saves and led Nepean to a 1-0 shootout victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Panthers\u2019 decisive 5-2 win versus Nepean on Saturday felt different as the home team struck early and often. Head Coach Steve Dempsey suggested that the team\u2019s season-long shooting drills are transforming his diligent U22 squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur shooting drills that we\u2019ve been working on for months are beginning to pay dividends. We\u2019re shooting the puck better. Overall, we shot the puck very well today and scored a number of goal scorers\u2019 goals. We also got to the front of the net and took away Clich\u00e9\u2019s sightlines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five minutes into Saturday\u2019s contest, Nepean\u2019s Lexie Hatoum fired a low wrist shot that beat Panthers\u2019 goaltender Izzy Whynot glove side to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the home side rallied with a series of highlight reel goals that subdued the Wildcats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panthers\u2019 rugged defender Mackenzie Cotey\u2014set up by Elizabeth Janovski and Amber Esterbrooks \u2013 rifled a laser from the right point that beat Clich\u00e9 high glove side to pull the home team into a 1-1 tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annabella Van Berkel\u2019s persistence was rewarded when she banged in her own rebound behind Clich\u00e9 2:46 into the second period to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solving Clich\u00e9 early in the game was a big step forward for the Panthers, according to Captain Cheyenne Degeer, who noted pregame, \u201cWe\u2019ve had a hard time scoring against Nepean this year. We outshot them by a wide margin in our shootout loss earlier in the season. Beating Clich\u00e9 today will be a big factor in our success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were prescient words by the Captain and Degeer\u2019s unassisted marker contributed to her team\u2019s success. The speedy forward found open ice, created a clear-cut breakaway, and fired a wicked wrist shot that bulged the twine behind Clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Degeer\u2019s picturesque goal was her 22nd<\/sup> of the season and solidified her hold on second place in the OWHL scoring race with 41 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another goal-scorers\u2019 goal applauded post-game by Coach Dempsey, Ashley Minor\u2019s perfectly-timed jump at the Wildcats\u2019 blue line intercepted a clearing pass. The Panthers\u2019 defender set the caught puck down on the ice and her quick release from between the circles handcuffed Clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minor\u2019s snapshot went through the wickets and into the Wildcats\u2019 cage to give Central York a three-goal lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four minutes later, Terry Wang\u2019s perfect pass sent Esterbrooks on a clear-cut breakaway and the veteran sniper rifled a wrist shot just under the crossbar, moving the mesh behind Clich\u00e9, and evoking a big Panther party as the home side staked itself to a commanding 5-1 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was evident that the Panthers had solved their Nepean nemesis\u2014scoring more goals in two periods against Clich\u00e9 than they had in two previous games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday afternoon at SARC, Central York won in a vastly different manner. The Panthers needed two late third period goals to edge the Icewolves 2-1. After two scoreless periods during which Central York held the edge in play and outshot Kingston 22-10, it was the Icewolves that took the lead when Claire Chambers beat Panthers\u2019 goaltender Samantha Whittle less than five minutes into the final frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the only puck that eluded Whittle as she turned aside 16 of 17 shots to earn the W.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cotey, as she did on Saturday afternoon versus the Wildcats, got the Panthers on the scoreboard and tied the game with 4:55 remaining.  Degeer and Zoe Li earned assists on Cotey\u2019s fourth of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Icewolves\u2019 blueliner Grace Wolsey drew a tripping penalty with 3:27 remaining, it proved costly for the visitors and turned out to be the turning point of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assertive Panthers would not be denied and, at 2:05, Van Berkel sniped the game-winning goal past Icewolves\u2019 goaltender Aneta Senkova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keira Johnson and Klaire Essex drew assists on the climactic marker that solved Senkova\u2014who had held the Panthers scoreless for 55 minutes. Van Berkel\u2019s clutch goal\u2014her eleventh of the season–allowed the Panthers to sweep their home-stand and improve the club\u2019s eighth-place record to 19-10-2 in the 25-team OWHL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these key wins in the books, the Central York Panthers will turn their attention to the biggest exhibition hockey game that the Town of Aurora has hosted since the Swiss and Swedish national women\u2019s teams treated locals to a great warmup to the 2024 IIHF championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remarkably, the CYP-China contest is free of charge so local fans can get a sneak peek at a future Olympics squad taking on the U22 Panthers. Puck drop for this international exhibition game on Sunday, January 26 is 2.30 p.m. at the Aurora Community Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Central York Panthers will carry a high degree of confidence and momentum into their showdown with the Chinese National Women\u2019s Hockey team on January 26 at the ACC. With such a significant exhibition game circled on the calendar, the Panthers needed to sweep their weekend home-stand versus the Nepean Wildcats and the Kingston Icewolves.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9ig","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 11:07:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35728","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=35728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35729,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35728\/revisions\/35729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}