Panthers stay perfect despite late Flames equaliser

Nottingham Panthers maintained their unbeaten start to the new season with a 4-3 shootout win in Guildford over the Flames.

Captain Sam Herr deflected a Matt Alfaro pass past Jake Kupsky with 8:51 gone to give the Panthers the lead on the powerplay.

The visitors doubled their advantage 4:16 into period two. A mistake on the offensive blue line by Travis Brown allowed Logan Neilson to skate through on Kupsky, whom he beat with an excellent top-shelf snipe.

Guildford were not out of things and had created chances themselves, just missing the final touch to beat the impressive Rok Stojanovič. The Flames were on the board 2:37 into the third, however, thanks to Daniel Tedesco brushing the puck over the line after the Slovene goalie had stopped Brett Ferguson’s initial shot.

A little over 10 minutes later, the puck broke kindly for Matt Alvaro to wrist home past Stojanovič’s glove hand to tie the game.

A late slashing call on Tedesco led to the Panthers re-gaining the lead with just 3:29 to play – Hugo Roy converting in front off an Alfaro pass. Guildford protested as the net was pushed out of position by Kupsky as he slid across his crease, but as it led to an imminent scoring opportunity it was correctly given.

With 1:28 to go, Kupsky was pulled in favour of the extra skater as the Flames chased an equialiser. After some half chances, Charlie Dodero found a seam to Tedesco who fired the puck into the roof of the net to tie the game with only eight seconds remaining.

Overtime was end to end but the Flames arguably should have won it, only for Stojanovič to come to the Panthers’ rescue on multiple occasions. The bonus point was eventually decided in a shootout where Kristoff Kontos scored the decider in sudden death to give the Panthers the victory.