Overtime agony for Panthers as Barry has last word
NOTTINGHAM Panthers suffered late heartbreak as they were beaten 3-2 at home by Glasgow Clan after overtime.
Panthers were once again without Carl Neill, Logan Neilson and Jake Ryczek, while Westin Michaud also missed out (upper body injury).
Zaine Mckenzie returned to the line-up, with Rok Stojanovic starting between the pipes and Luca Sheldon as back-up.
Panthers made a strong start with early chances for Mathieu Lemay and Ollie Betteridge, while Anthony Luciani went close and Stephen Anderson saw his shot cleared off the line.
At the other end, Stojanovic was in impressive form again and made good saves to deny Cody Sol and Darien Craighead.
Didrik Henbrant, who was at the heart of everything Panthers did, was denied by Antti Karjalainen, but Glasgow went ahead when Luke Lynch found room in the slot to fire past Stojanovic (23:45).
Panthers continued to pile on the pressure and Henbrant had two chances in quick succession with his rebound effort hitting the base of the post.
Lemay redirected Joe Hazeldine’s shot past Karjalainen for Nottingham’s equaliser (29:00) before Henbrant danced his way through the offensive zone and, although his initial shot was saved, he got the final touch to Jordan Kelsall’s effort to put Panthers ahead (37:21).
Henbrant, Nieminen and Betteridge all went close on successive powerplays in the third period as the Panthers pushed hard for a third.
The Clan swooped to score a late equaliser when Philippe Sanche reacted first to a loose puck to take the game to overtime (57:23)
In an end-to-end overtime, Nieminen and Alexander Lunsjö had chances to win it for the Panthers, while Stojanovic made a massive save to deny Michael Pelech at the other end.
But the visitors won it when Craighead forced a turnover to send Matt Barry clear to beat Stojanovic and secure a vital extra point for the Clan.