Nottingham Panthers cut the gap on Belfast Giants to six points with an overtime win over Glasgow Clan at a sold-out Motorpoint Arena on Country Night.
“We got it done again, but we have to find a way to be better,” admitted Panthers’ Bryan Lemos. “We have to bear down here and pick it up until the end of the season.”
The first big chance of the opening period fell to Mick Messner, who raced through on Jason Grande after a David Noël slip, but the Panthers goalie came out on top.
Clan went ahead on their third chance of the period. Brett Neumann’s excellent backhand pass into the slot set up Ryan Schwartz for a wrist shot that Grande was screened on.
Clan’s powerplay struggled on Friday night and, 24 hours later, gave up a shorthanded goal as Didrik Henbrant broke away and finished at 6:41 to tie the game.
Bryan Lemos extended the Panthers’ lead 3:35 into the second period, but Clan pulled it back to a one-goal game at 26:51 when another excellent Neumann pass found Tristin Langan on the far side of the slot to one-time past Grande.
Neumann, who had an excellent game, got a goal of his own inside the final 14 minutes, finishing after a Schwartz feed to tie the game once again.
Clan were threatening an equaliser and they got it with under six minutes remaining when Schwartz’s shot from the top of the circle beat Grande short side.
Neither side found a winner in regulation, but the Panthers struck in overtime. Henbrant skated in alone and whipped a shot past Sami Aittokallio off the back bar to win the game 85 seconds into the extra period.
“There’s always a lot of close chances, we just have to tighten up,” added Lemos. “Yeah we scored four goals, but we also have to think about what we’re doing in the neutral zone and in our own end. We can’t give up as many chances as we did today.”
Photo: Panthers Images
