For only the second time in Elite League competition, the Nottingham Panthers scored more than four goals at the Guildford Spectrum as they defeated the Flames 6-1 on Wednesday night to move to the top of the table.
“Tonight was a great night – we came in and wanted to play good team hockey, and that’s what we did,” said current Panther and former Flame Bryan Lemos. “We tried to build off the weekend and we’re taking steps every day.”
The sides traded breakaway chances early as both teams had opportunities to open the scoring. Tyler Preziuso and Matt Spencer were denied 1-on-0 by Jason Grande and Taz Burman respectively. The Panthers thought they’d gone ahead with a well-worked powerplay goal at 15:56, but after initially being called good on the ice it was washed out on review for the net having been dislodged before the shot – meaning it was not an immediate scoring chance.
Three minutes later the visitors did take the lead when Lemos squeezed a shot through Burman with 63 seconds left in the period.
Chase Pearson set up Brendan Harris, who was alone at the far post, to double the lead less than 90 seconds into period two. What was turning into a nightmare middle frame for the hosts got worse when a poor turnover left the puck on the stick of Mitch Fossier to fire home at 27:21. Lemos then saw his shot from the point tipped through Burman to put the Panthers four up just past the 30-minute mark. In between those goals, Matt Marcinew saw a puck bounce awkwardly over his stick to spoil a penalty-shot attempt.
“I think we just weren’t ready to play today, and no matter who we play against in this league it won’t go our way,” admitted Flames forward Matthieu Gosselin. “We have to be better.”
Justin Fazio, who replaced Burman in the Flames’ net for the third period, produced an excellent save to deny Brendan Harris as he walked in through the home defence. The Flames went straight up the ice and got their first of the game – a neat lay-off from Jack Jacome setting up Gosselin for a shot into an open cage.
“We have to play better, to be honest,” added Gosselin ahead of visiting Nottingham this weekend. “We need to get back to how we were playing when we beat them at home on the opening weekend.”
Marcus Tesink was ejected for a boarding call on Josh Tetlow, and on the resulting powerplay good passing set up Pearson for his second of the game. That finished the scoring, with the Panthers comfortably seeing out the rest of the contest.
Late on, Tyler Busch and Zsombor Garát dropped the gloves and were given fighting majors.
“Our penalty kill has been unbelievable and that’s a huge part of the game,” added Lemos, whose side were 100% on the kill through the night. “Saturday (against the Flames in Nottingham) is another hockey game – we know what we have to do and need to continue to try and do it.”
Photo: Ollie Birth
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