Board games fall short as Panthers pounce to punish Clan
be no complaints coming from the visiting bench over the score flashing up on the arena’s back wall as their hosts dramatically failed to continue the form that has seen them win their last seven league games.
Instead the Glasgow club floundered in a 5-3 defeat on the night, a result which sent Nottingham into a last-four match-up with Sheffield Steelers courtesy of a 10-7 aggregate triumph.
It all started off so well for Braehead as they levelled the tie on aggregate within the first minute, 52 seconds to be precise. Captain Matt Keith’s smacked slapshot was straight at Panthers goaltender Miika Wiikman, but the Swede’s slow reaction saw the puck trickle across his own goal. Chris Bruton was alert to the opportunity and prodded it over the line from the crease.
The goal failed to inspire Clan to kick on in the period and put their visitors, surely already nervous after the first leg, to the sword. Instead Nottingham slowly began to come back into the game and had their own netminder Travis Fullerton to thank for keeping them ahead on the night as he somehow halted a stramash in front of his goal being converted.
For all the home defence held firm on that occasion, it was more than suspect on 14 minutes when Panthers clawed a goal back. A Braehead attack broke down with a long puck forward not tracked. Fullerton raced out of his goal to try to sweep up any danger, but his clearance only went as far as Robert Lachowicz, who managed to steer the puck into the net as Clan attempted to scramble back.
Within two minutes it would get worse as the English side took the lead on the night and extended their tie advantage without much fuss. Paul Swindlehurst’s shot from the blue line was tapped in at the crease by Juraj Kolnik.
The couple of thousand home fans inside the Braehead Arena would have been right to expect some sort of reaction from their team in the second period. They didn’t get one.
In fairness to Clan, both teams struggled to click but Braehead really should have done more when on a four-on-two breakaway, only for Nathan McIver to smash his shot at Wiikman.
A truly bizarre moment soon followed at the other end when the puck seem to catch the boards and spring across Fullerton’s goal while the goalie was facing the other way. He somehow managed to leap on it before anyone could take advantage, but the resultant face-off would kill this game off.
Panthers won the drop and Steven Lee smashed a screamer of a shot through a ruck of players and into the net.
Nottingham would go on to add another before the period was up, David Ling this time dancing along the crease before hooking a shot by Fullerton.
Evan Mosey’s shot trickled in a couple of minutes into the third to make matters worse only for a late rally see Brendan Brooks and Bruton restore some pride and make that scoreboard a little less painful to look at.