Nottingham Panthers stayed three points clear at the top of the Elite League with a 7-3 win over Fife Flyers.
“I thought we played really well,” began Panthers forward Jordan Kelsall, who scored for the second consecutive night. “We travelled back from Belfast this morning after a pretty difficult game there. Given that, I thought we really stuck to our plan tonight and got the result we wanted.”
After an even start, good work from Didrik Henbrant circling behind the net and firing the puck into the slot saw it bounce off a body in front and over the line. David Booth had the Flyers’ best chance of the opening ten minutes, but Jason Grande flashed the glove to deny his effort from the slot.
Fife levelled on the powerplay with Zsombor Garát in the box for shooting the puck out of bounds. Crisp puck movement from the visitors set up Johan Porsberger for an excellent shot from the top of the circle to tie the game just past the 13-minute mark.
Chase Pearson came closest to restoring the Panthers’ lead but saw Shane Owen deny his effort, before Owen produced a double save to keep out Ross Armour. After sustained pressure from the hosts, Garát fired home from the slot to put the Panthers back in front.
Fife tied the game again following good work from Milan Lucic along the boards, protecting the puck and allowing Gino Finoro to fire from the point through traffic to beat Grande in period two.
Booth capitalised on a bouncing puck to break in alone on Grande but was denied as the Flyers threatened to take the lead.
On the powerplay, Tim Doherty threaded a perfect pass across for Armour to tap past Owen and put the Panthers back ahead with 8:30 left in the second period. Kelsall then finished a loose puck in the crease with just over five minutes remaining to give the hosts some breathing space.
“Every game is always important, but now with where we are in the standings and the opportunity we’ve given ourselves, we need to be playing like this every night,” added Kelsall. “We have a game plan, we stuck to it, and we played hard around our net. Every game is huge.”
After a strong start to the third period, Armour extended the Panthers’ lead to three with just over 14 minutes to play. Jacob Stridsberg then scored his first goal for the Panthers, unleashing a rocket of a slapshot from the circle as the home side began to pull away.
Matt Marcinew tipped a Cooper Zech shot past Owen to make it seven for the Panthers, while Ethan Somoza added a late consolation for the Flyers.
“Having Brendan Harris back this weekend was huge. I thought he made a real difference,” concluded Kelsall. “He’s a really good player and we need him in the lineup if we want to be successful.”
Photo: Panthers Images
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