Panthers fight back to tie but Devils claim win
NOTTINGHAM Panthers were beaten 4-2 by Cardiff Devils at the Motorpoint Arena on Saturday night.
Panthers were without Ollie Betteridge, Westin Michaud and Tyler Welsh as all three missed the game because of injury.
Rok Stojanovic started between the pipes with British netminder Luca Sheldon as back-up.
Stojanovic made pad saves to deny Cole Ully and Cody Donaghey inside the first minute – and also made a superb close-range stop to turn away Cole Sanford’s shot.
Anthony Luciani and Simon Després went close on a Panthers powerplay but premium chances for both sides were limited until the closing minutes of the period as Devils scored twice in 30 seconds.
Bode Wilde fired top-shelf through traffic on the powerplay (17:21) and River Rymsha drove to the net to bury a second goal for Cardiff (17:51).
In a tight second period, Hugo Roy had three chances on the same shift for the Panthers as he was twice denied by Ben Bowns and then shot just wide.
Bowns also stopped Otto Nieminen from the right-circle as well as turning away his follow-up effort.
Panthers made a strong start to the third period with Felix Paré hitting the pipes and Alexander Lunsjö shooting just side, before Nottingham scored twice in 46 seconds to tie the game.
Jake Ryczek produced a superb bit of skill in the offensive zone and his shot from right-point trickled in after Bowns got a piece of it (44:22), while Didrik Henbrant cut inside from the right to equalise (45:08).
Jamie Arniel put Devils ahead again with a fine solo goal (50:27) as he waltzed through the offensive zone.
Nottingham lifted Stojanovic for the extra outskater with just over two minutes remaining but Joey Martin secured the points for the visitors with an empty-net goal (59:35).