“We feel really good, the guys played so well in front of me tonight,” began Panthers goalie Kevin Carr. “The chances that Sheffield had we mostly shut down, and it’s really positive for us. Defensively we were so good tonight. We were pretty compact and didn’t spread out too much.”
What looked like a goalless opening period for much of the frame came to life inside the final five minutes. Before that, the Panthers had created the better chances – Matt Marcinew forced an early save after just six seconds, while Bryan Lemos also tested Eamon McAdam. The Steelers grew into the game, with a Nick Seitz effort flashing across the face of goal.
The hosts eventually opened the scoring on a rare odd-man rush against the run of play. Evan Jasper fed Robert Dowd for a neat back-door finish just past the 15-minute mark. From the resulting faceoff, a collision between two Panthers defencemen left Cole Shudra through on Kevin Carr, but the Nottingham netminder stood tall with a blocker save.
Didrik Henbrant had a glorious chance to level moments later on a 2-on-1 rush but deflected wide. The Panthers did tie the game before the break after good work from Mitch Fossier to keep the puck alive, with Tim Doherty’s swipe catching McAdam off guard at 18:45.
The second period offered little in terms of clear chances, but the Panthers took the lead through Nolan Volcan’s first goal of the season, finishing from a Brendan Harris feed at 35:43. Fossier almost extended the lead soon after, forcing an excellent glove save from McAdam.
“I think we’re getting chances, but we’re just not scoring at the moment,” reflected Steelers’ Jordon Southorn. “We’re out-chancing teams, we’re out-shooting them, but we’re just not putting the puck in the net. Sometimes in a long year you go through some goal droughts, but it’s hard to win a game when you let in four and only score two.”
Just 2:41 into period three, David Noël’s shot from the top of the circle beat McAdam clean to give Nottingham a two-goal cushion. The Steelers responded through Brian Diffley, whose deflected effort off a faceoff found its way past Carr to make it 3-2 with just over nine and a half minutes remaining.
The Panthers hit the post late on and came close again when the puck dropped kindly to Noël in the slot, but their pressure finally paid off. With McAdam caught without his stick, Zsombor Garát fired home to seal the 4-2 victory with just over two minutes to play.
8 September 2013 was the last time the Panthers won a Cup group stage game in Sheffield in regulation, a 4-1 win on that night.
“We’re a strong group in there, we have the forwards here with the power to put pucks in the net and we have a lot of belief in ourselves,” added Southorn. “It’ll come sooner than later and it’ll come in an abundance. We’re doing the right things and sticking with the system.”
Sheffield Steelers – Nottingham Panthers 2:4 Nottingham Panthers Sheffield Steelers
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