Panthers go second ahead of big weekend
Photo: Panthers Images
Nottingham Panthers cruised to a 6-2 win over Fife Flyers on Friday night, moving them into second place in the Elite League and cutting the gap on the leaders to just four points.
A crowd of 6,542 were in the Motorpoint Arena on Friday night.
“It was a solid team performance from puck drop,” began Panthers’ Ollie Betteridge. “It was a complete game from us all.”
Bryan Lemos opened the scoring 4:54 into the game, finishing on a 2-on-1 with Nolan Volcan. In under six minutes, Panthers were three ahead as Lemos scored again before Tim Doherty put the hosts firmly in control.
“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, any team can win a hockey game on any given night. You have to be at your best to win otherwise teams will take advantage of you,” added Betteridge. “I thought tonight we played a good, solid hockey game as a group.”
Flyers handed an EIHL debut to 17-year-old Cole Giannandrea, who finished with just under five minutes of ice time.
“It was unreal, it was such a good experience,” said Giannandrea of his first game in professional hockey. “It’s really fast! The first shift was a bit of a ropey one, but I thought I got into it as things went on.”
David Noël made it four just 76 seconds into the second period. Christian Purboo then stopped a Panthers 2-on-0 before a powerplay, caused by Garet Hunt’s abuse of officials penalty, led to Chase Pearson making it five with 3:31 left in the middle period.
“Every game coming up is big. We’re all striving for the league trophy, plus we have a massive one on Wednesday in the Challenge Cup, so we have to be at our best every night,” continued Betteridge.
Matt Marcinew made it six for the hosts 2:46 into the final period, before Fife got on the board through Keaton Jameson with just under 12 minutes to play. Ian Scheid added another after a good rush from Milan Lucic with 5:29 remaining to make it 6-2.
“They just put the puck on the net a lot more than we did,” added Giannandrea. “Overall it wasn’t a bad game. We just have to keep going here and go out with some pride in the last part of the season.”
