Panthers win sixth straight in league

Photo: Panthers Images

Nottingham Panthers moved joint top of the Elite League standings with a late winner to earn a 3-2 home win over Fife Flyers on Wednesday night, making it six league wins in a row.

Stephen Desrocher broke the deadline for the visitors in this game, putting Fife ahead 10:33 into the opening period. That was a lead the Flyers held for almost 20 minutes until the Panthers turned the game around in a little over three second-period minutes. 

Hugo Roy levelled the game at 29:29 while Ben Hawerchuk sat a tripping minor, and 3:18 later Carl Neill did brilliantly to keep the puck in the offensive zone, deked a Flyers man, and then fired into the roof of Shane Owen's net. Hawerchuk pulled off a contender for save of the week, batting a floating puck out of mid-air in the crease to save a certain goal.

Fife were back on level terms with 7:48 played in period three through Anthon Eriksson. Owen made an excellent stop to deny Adam Johnson as the Panthers broke on a shorthanded 2-on-0 rush, while Rok Stojanovič thwarted Teemu Pulkkinen at the other end as the game entered the final six minutes.The home side were back ahead off a neat wrist shot from Didrik Henbrant with 3:02 remaining after the Flyers turned the puck over on their own blue line.

Westin Michaud fired into the empty net from his own zone with wrap the game up in the final minute.