Flying start for Panthers but Clan claim the victory
NOTTINGHAM Panthers were beaten 9-3 by Glasgow Clan at the Braehead Arena on Saturday night.
The Panthers welcomed back Josh Tetlow for the first time since mid-october after he recovered from a broken arm.
Rok Stojanovic started between the pipes with Luca Sheldon as back-up but Ollie Betteridge and Tyler Welsh remained out of action because of injury.
Panthers took the lead after only 22 seconds as Otto Nieminen sped down the left wing and fed Hugo Roy who shot across Antti Karjalainen into the corner of the net (0:22).
Mike Caruso and Roy had chances in quick succession to make it two while at the other end, Stojanovic made two fine saves to deny Darien Craighead.
Philippe Sanche equalised for the Clan from close range on the powerplay (12:57) before Anthony Luciani hit the pipes for the Panthers.
Panthers went ahead again when Alexander Lunsjö superbly took the puck into the offensive zone, cut inside from the right and his shot was tipped-in by Logan Neilson for his fifth goal in successive games (15:32).
Glasgow made a good start to the second period and Alex Roach equalised with a shot from the top of the right-circle (22:59).
Dyson Stevenson popped home a rebound to give Clan the lead for the first time (32:17) and Matt Barry made it 4-2 as he got the redirect on Luke Lynch’s one-timer from the leftcircle on the powerplay (33:20).
Glasgow capped a perfect period for them as Barry scored at the backdoor after being set up by former Panther Robert Lachowicz (36:53).
Philippe Sanche reacted first to a bounce off the backboards (40:49) and Lachowicz won the face-off which saw Dyson Stevenson beat Stojanovic low (45:17).
Nieminen set up Luciani to reduce the arrears (47:00) but Clan hit straight back when Lachowicz supplied the pass to Jordan Cownie to finish-off a neat two-on-one break (47:49).
Stephen Desrocher faked a shot and found Nate Kallen in space who slammed the puck into the net for Glasgow’s ninth (54:32).