Six unanswered goals win it for Clan

Photo: Panthers Images

Glasgow Clan came back from three goals down, scoring six unanswered, to beat Nottingham Panthers 6-3 on Wednesday night.

Otto Nieminen scored the only goal of the opening period with a laser of a shot that beat Jake Kielly in the top corner of his net with 8:11 played. That was the only goal of an opening period that saw the teams combine for some 34 shots over 20 minutes.

Clan started the second period stronger but found themselves two down. A spin-and-shoot from Stephen Anderson at 24:42 doubled the hosts' lead with the quickness of the release doing the damage. Clan continued to press but were caught 2-on-1 the other way with an inch-perfect Anderson pass teeing up Mathieu Lemay for the far-post finish through Kielly's five-hole to make it 3-0 at 30:21. 

The Panthers then survived a 5-on-3 shorthanded situation for some 90 seconds with some excellent penalty killing, but were awarded a penalty shot at 35:55 when Darien Craighead disrupted Hugo Roy's breakaway - Roy shot wide on the following shot. 14 seconds after the Panthers returned to full strength, Nate Kallen's pass split the Panthers defense and allowed Gary Haden to finish high blocker-side on Mike Robinson to get Clan on the board with 2:29 left in the period.

Kielly made a point-blank save to deny Panthers new signing Anthony Luciani 40 seconds into period three to keep his team only two behind. Shortly after, an Alex Roach shot from the point went through some bodies and beat Robinson with a touch off Mike Pelech in front to bring Clan back to within one. Clan were level under two minutes later - Bryce Reddick's shot from the point was deflected en route to the net by Philippe Sanche to tie the game at 44:54.

Clan began to take over as the period drew on, and after a good spell of cycling the puck it was Charlie Combs who shot through a screen of players to put Glasgow into the lead with 5:22 remaining. Before the Panthers could get Robinson to the bench for the extra skater, Jordan Cownie was allowed to skate into the Panthers zone and get on his own rebound to make it 5-3 with just over two minutes left. Ryan Harrison scored on the empty net with 38 seconds remaining to finish off the game.