{"id":37665,"date":"2026-02-26T16:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37665"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:12:29","slug":"junior-panthers-late-season-slump-continues-with-narrow-losses-to-whitby-and-toronto-leaside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/junior-panthers-late-season-slump-continues-with-narrow-losses-to-whitby-and-toronto-leaside\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Panthers\u2019 late-season slump continues with narrow losses to Whitby and Toronto Leaside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The sixth-place U22 Central York Panthers (26-15-0) have hit a rare rough patch in their otherwise fine OWHL season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in 2025-26, the Junior Panthers are working through a four-game losing streak after being one of the dominant teams in the Elite 25-team loop for over five months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Sunday afternoon at SARC, the Panthers\u2019 high-scoring offence was stymied by goalkeeper Sadie Davidson and Central York was edged 2-1 by the Whitby Wolves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panthers\u2019 Head Coach Steve Dempsey described his team\u2019s strategy versus the 14th-place Wolves: \u201cWhitby\u2019s record isn\u2019t indicative of the quality of their players they have. We wanted to get more traffic to the net in this game and create more side-to-side scoring opportunities. We out-chanced them, but we\u2019re a work in progress right now as we prepare for the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Dempsey added, \u201cWe\u2019ve been changing our offence to get our team ready for playoff hockey. We\u2019re trying to create more 2-on-1s and provide quick support.  It was a close game, but that\u2019s sport for you \u2014 sometimes you play well enough to win and you don\u2019t. There are games in a winning streak that you don\u2019t deserve to win, but you do. In a losing streak, there are games you deserve to win, but don\u2019t, and I think they played well enough to win today. I thought some of our decision-making in the neutral zone cost us a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexa Strano\u2019s shortie took advantage of the Panthers\u2019 decision-making in the neutral zone and gave the white-jerseyed, blue-striped Wolves a 1-0 lead 2:22 into the first period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Panthers tied it two minutes later when Demi Lazarou notched her 14th of the season at 4:22 \u2014 earning assists for Briar Deckers and Ashley Minor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5:11 into the second period, Katie Belk found space between the circles and her wicked wrist shot beat Panthers\u2019 netminder Jamie Sanford high blocker side. Remarkably, Belk\u2019s early goal in the middle frame stood up as the game-winning goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Belk\u2019s breakaway attempt was repelled by Sanford to keep the home side\u2019s deficit at one, a penalty shot was awarded to Lazarou after a schmozzle in the Wolves\u2019 crease with 7:25 left in the second period. The talented Panthers\u2019 scorer was foiled on her deke and backhand attempt by Davidson, who made a number of high-quality saves in the middle twenty minutes to protect the visitors\u2019 narrow lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite a furious final push by the red-clad Panthers with Sanford pulled for the extra attacker at 2:12, Davidson stood tall in the Wolves’ net and blocked pucks during two minutes of sustained pressure by the home side. The Panthers\u2019 second-leading scorer, Audrey Martone, came within millimetres of jamming home a rebound in the lower right-hand corner past Davidson with seconds left in the game, but the puck wedged between the post and Davidson\u2019s skate to keep Central York from getting the equalizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the Wolves-Panthers game was an entertaining goaltenders\u2019 duel with Davidson turning aside 22 of 23 shots to earn the win and Sanford saving 22 of 24.  Both netminders were the stars of the contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Saturday night matchup, the 6th-place Panthers were upset 4-3 by the 13th-place Toronto Leaside Wildcats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Dempsey critiqued his team\u2019s performance in Toronto: \u201cSaturday\u2019s game was a bit of a letdown.  After competing with two of the top teams in the country last weekend, it was a disappointing result. We should have taken care of business but we got down early. We gave them a pair of Grade A chances, and they buried their opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoe Warner and Madeline Walters buried the Grade A chances to which Coach Dempsey referred and staked the Wildcats to a 2-0 lead just two minutes into the opening period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lily Paisley\u2019s 15th of the season \u2014 assisted by Lazarou and Elizabeth Janovski \u2014 pulled the Panthers to within one heading into first intermission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Wildcats restored their two-goal lead when Brooklyn Vito\u2019s power play goal lit the lamp five minutes in the second period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Panthers responded with a power play goal of their own when Abby Pak finished a passing play with Annabella Van Berkel and Zoe Ordanis to cut Central York\u2019s deficit to 3-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacqueline Kean\u2019s power-play marker at 4:17 into the third period put the home side up 4-2 and stood up as the game-winning goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ordanis\u2019s 11th of the season \u2014 assisted by Van Berkel \u2014 made it 4-3 at 7:23, but that was as close as the slumping Panthers could get as they dropped their third game in a row.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Dempsey discussed the importance of focusing his U22 Panthers squad on the upcoming Ottawa road trip and preparing for the league playoffs with only five games left in the regular season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery game now is like a playoff game. It\u2019s scratch and claw time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing two games in Ottawa against East Ottawa and the Senators that are must wins for us.  We\u2019ve talked about embracing our adversity.  We have players playing through injuries, but every team is banged up this time of year. We really need to be ready to play with the next five-person unit prepared to play playoff hockey. We need to be warriors. We need to use the adversity we\u2019re facing right now as fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The sixth-place U22 Central York Panthers (26-15-0) have hit a rare rough patch in their otherwise fine OWHL season. For the first time in 2025-26, the Junior Panthers are working through a four-game losing streak after being one of the dominant teams in the Elite 25-team loop for over five months. Last Sunday afternoon at […]<\/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-37665","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\/p3D2k4-9Nv","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 19:26:31","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\/37665","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=37665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37666,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37665\/revisions\/37666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}