(file photo)
By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
Leading scorer Nolan Stevenson tallied two more goals as the Port Hope Panthers earned a 3-1 victory over the visiting Campbellford Rebels in Provincial Junior Hockey League action Wednesday evening at the Jack Burger Sports Complex.
It was the second straight win for the Panthers after three losses to start the 2021-22 junior C hockey campaign, including a 6-3 defeat against the Rebels in the season-opening contest.
“We were kind of slow to start just because of our numbers situation with our players and having so many guys off,” said Panthers coach David Miller.
“Now we’re finally starting to get our team assembled and the vision that we had planned for at the beginning of the year. It’s nice to see the vision that we had coming to fruition. We’re happy with the way things are going and we’re hoping to keep moving in that direction.”
Andrew Moran opened the scoring with Campbellford’s lone goal of the game on a power play just under seven minutes into the first period.
Stevenson evened the score 9:07 into the second period on a Port Hope man-advantage opportunity.
His fourth goal of the season was assisted by Logan Kelly and Bryson Kelloway.
Evan Wright, with his first goal of the campaign, scored the go-ahead marker which stood up as the eventual winner at 17:37 of the middle frame.
Cole Papageorgiou and Carter Clarke, with his team-leading fourth helper, drew the assists.
Late in the third, Stevenson netted his second goal of the game and fifth in five games with Tyler McGarvey earning an assist.
“He’s a veteran in this league and I had him in Clarington,” Miller said of Stevenson.
“He’s a fantastic kid, has been a leader in our dressing room and he’s finding where to be on the ice to be successful. He’s making things happen for himself by using his body and his size to open up ice for himself.”
Miller noted the chemistry that is developing between Stevenson and Kelly, who is a rookie for the Panthers this season.
“They’re really working well with each other.”
Goaltender Sam Dingle recorded his first PJHL win, stopping 20 of the 21 shots he faced for the Panthers.
Eric Martin had a busy night at the other end, making 34 saves for the Rebels in a losing cause.
Port Hope (2-3-0-0) heads to Picton to face the Pirates (3-1-0-0) on Thursday night.
They will have another player in the lineup as Michael Patrick, of Brighton and product of the Quinte Red Devils AAA system, makes his season debut.
“He adds a dimension of speed on the outside that we’ve been missing a little bit so we’re happy to have him back,” Miller said.
The Panthers return home to face the Napanee Raiders on Saturday evening, 7:30 p.m., at the Jack Burger Sports Complex.
The Raiders (6-0-0-0) are undefeated through six games heading into a Friday night match-up against Picton. Miller is looking forward to seeing how his bolstered lineup stacks up against Picton and Napanee after previous losses to those clubs.
They’ll soon play the Amherstview Jets (3-2-0-0) for the first time this season as well.
“I think our league is wide open this year,” he remarked.
“There’s a lot of parity which is nice to see. Napanee, Picton, Amherstview, three teams that are always competitive. We can’t look past Frankford (0-5-0-0) on Monday either. Any team can win any night in our league. They’re getting better with every game. We’re excited to see where we are compared to these teams now that we’re going to have our full lineup starting next week.”
