Cardiff Devils secured second place overall with a 4-1 win in Nottingham over the Panthers on the final day of the regular season.

“We played probably one of our best games in the last stretch and the guys made it easy for me tonight,” said Devils netminder Christian Stoever, who conceded just one goal. “I was coming off a shutout in my last game as well so tried not to think about it as much. The one that beat me was a good shot, now we’ve got to be ready for the playoffs.”

There was nothing to separate the two sides after 20 minutes at the Motorpoint Arena, although having restricted their hosts to just three shots, Cardiff were likely left wondering how the game remained scoreless. Kevin Carr was called into a couple of good saves, while a Josh Tetlow stick denied Kohen Olischefski from putting the Devils ahead with just over seven minutes left in the opening period. The Panthers came close to opening the scoring on a late powerplay, but the period ended goalless.

“I thought it was a bit of a tough way to end, considering that for two periods it was pretty close,” said Panthers Matt Spencer. “We were a couple of guys short but it was a close game. Unfortunately, we had a couple of plays we wish we could have back. We’ll try to not let it happen again heading into the playoffs.”

The second period saw Nolan Volcan and Tyson Helgeson drop the gloves, while both sides had a powerplay opportunity but were unable to break the deadlock.

Former Panther Kris Kontos opened the scoring 90 seconds into the third period to give the Devils the lead, before Jimmy Oligny made it two just over two minutes later, finishing a rebound from a shot redirected by Olischefski.

Josh MacDonald fired home from Cole Sanford’s pass at 5:17 of the period to put the visitors in control.

“I think for two periods, we stepped up. When they threw a big hit, Volan was there and it was great, we need more of that,” added Spencer. “We’ll keep doing that, for sure, and other than that we need to have more traffic going to the net. Obviously it was frustrating to not score more than one tonight.”

Tim Doherty pulled one back for the Panthers with a high finish past Stoever, but Brett Perlini rounded off the scoring with 6:39 to play.

“You control what you can control,” added Stoever. “We were in a good spot in this game, and the team made the third period a lot less pressure on me.”

Photo: Panthers Images