Panthers take OT win on Stewart's return to Skydome

Danny Stewart was victorious on his return to the Skydome as Nottingham Panthers came away from Coventry with a 3-2 overtime victory in a game where the Blaze came back from two behind.

Logan Neilson had the opening goal at 9:33 of the first period in an end to end game. After scoring, the Panthers grew in confidence and deserved to double their lead through Sam Herr on the powerplay at 15:07. Mat Robson made an outstanding diving save in the period after a bad bounce off the boards left him stranded outside his net.

The Blaze were back level in under four second-period minutes. At 29:32 Chase Gresock eventually got a puck behind Rok Stojanovič who’d made an excellent save on the previous play to keep the Blaze out. Just under four minutes later, Michael Regush busted a gut to get onto a Gresock pass and slot pass Stojanovič to tie things up.

While period two was penalty-filled, the game flowed nicely in the third as both teams looked for a winner. Hugo Roy, denied several times by Robson, hit the iron inside the final 10 minutes, although at the other end the Blaze had pucks bouncing in front of Stojanovič in the closing stages but not enough to force one over the line.

Both teams taking a point was a fair reflection on the game, and in overtime it took a wonderful Matt Spencer pass to be deflected in front by Tim Doherty to win it for the Panthers at 63:05.