Midweek delight puts Panthers closer to playoffs

Photo: Panthers Images

Nottingham Panthers snapped a two-game loss streak and moved themselves to within five points of a playoff place with a big Wednesday night win over Guildford Flames in front of a near sold-out Motorpoint Arena Crowd.

Less than four minutes had been played when Anthony Luciani shot home Miles McGurty's feed to the top of the crease, and that was a lead the home side doubled on an odd-man rush where Didrik Henbrant opted to shoot rather than pass and beat Taz Burman at 12:29.

99 seconds into period two, Luciani neatly finished in the slot to make it 3-0 as the Panthers ended the middle frame up by three despite being outshot almost 2:1.

Another rush saw Otto Nieminen race through to beat Burman 3:28 into the third as the hosts moved into a comfortable lead. Lewis Hook broke Rok Stojanovič's shutout at 47:11, but 90 seconds later Roy got on a rebound from a Henbrandt shot to make it 5-1. Nieminen added his second of the game to round things off at 57:51.