Friday: Panthers enter season in Manchester

Photo: Mark Ferris

Nottingham Panthers enter competitive fixtures under new head coach Danny Stewart with a visit to Manchester Storm on Friday night.

The teams met in pre-season on 30 August with Storm running out comfortable 4-1 winners. Storm's excellent form from the warm-up games continued when they began their cup campaign last weekend, thrashing Guildford Flames 5-1 on opening night. In Sunday's reverse fixture, Storm were 3-1 up in Surrey before losing 4-3 to a goal in the final six seconds.

Nottingham's pre-season has been indifferent. That loss to Manchester came after defeats to the University of Quebec and Sheffield Steelers, with their only regulation win coming over Lausitzer Füchse. The Panthers beat Cardiff Devils in a shootout last Saturday before being beaten 5-1 by the same opposition back on home ice.

Storm edged the five games between the teams in Altrincham last season with three wins to the Panthers' two.