NOTTINGHAM, UK – This was a feisty contest between two teams that finished just points apart in the league campaign, as they both narrowly missed out on taking the league title. An early penalty called on Jay Henderson for Roughing, led to the Giants taking the lead through a power play goal by Jacobson with a blast from the blue line.
After six minutes the Giants could have increased their lead when Colin Shields tapped home after a fumble from St. Pierre. Referee Hanson waved away the goal as he had already whistled thinking that the net-minder had control of the puck.
Panthers were employing some noteworthy tactics as Galbraith was playing on defence on the powerplay while Kevin Bergin also spent some time on the blue line for the Panthers in an attempt to find the equalising goal. From a Belfast point of view veteran forward George Awada logged a lot of ice time on the Giants penalty kill, even though he did not have a regular spot on either of his side’s principle offensive lines.
The first period was confrontational affair with a total of ten minutes issued in Roughing penalties and another three minor penalties called.
Neither side was able to trouble the scorers in the middle period of action. Both Szwez and Bateman did test the reflexes of St Pierre during the opening minutes of the stanza though. While Steve Thornton also had a good opportunity late in the period which he could not covert.
Nottingham continued to use some unusual systems as Corey Neilson decided to often place his principal forwards on the blue line for face offs while d men where often on the wing when the puck dropped. Panthers struggled to get their main players in the game during the first 40 minutes and the side from the lace city may have had more success if they had stuck to more traditional set ups. The third period continued in a defensive vein and was largely uneventful until a major loss of discipline from the Panthers saw Jay Henderson ejected from the game on a 10 minute misconduct penalty. The penalty was killed and as the Panthers returned to full strength the Giants defence was split open with a sublime pass from Corey Neilson who found Jade Galbraith in acres of space who fired in the equaliser with less than three minutes left on the clock.
If neither team could find their offensive edge in sixty minutes, it was unlikely that they would find it in five minutes of sudden death 4 on 4 overtime and the game was to be decided by penalty shots. In fact it took twelve penalty shots to decide who would face the Cardiff Devils in Sunday’s Elite League Playoff final. The Giants took the shootout 3-2 with two strikes from Jeff Szwez and a single marker from Craig Peacock. Jade Galbraith and Sean McAslan netted for the Panthers but it wasn’t enough to send the home side through to the final.
Man of the Match – Nottingham – Kevin St-Pierre Belfast – Stephen Murphy
Shots on Goal On Stephen Murphy- 31 shots On Kevin St Pierre – 37 shots
Contact Victoria.Silverwood@prohockeynews.com and Chris.MacJenzie@prohockeynews.;com
You must be logged in to post a comment.