Nottingham Panthers ran in a lead of four goals against Guildford Flames, but eventually held to win with the strange goal in 11 in the Motorpoint Arena.
“We started really well and played a lot of good hockey,” started Chase Pearson, who hit a hat trick for the Panthers. “The second and thirds were of course not so good. We took our foot a bit off the gas and they have capitalized it. We have to play a full 60 if we want to compete in this competition.”
Danny Stewart could not have scrapped a better opening period for Nottingham Panthers, who scored a lead of four goals on Guildford Flames who scored all four within just over 11 minutes.
Cooper Zech opened the score at 8:13 and ended a Brendan Harris feed. Somewhat against the game, Chase Pearson dangled for Taz Burman and stopped the Puck home for 2-0. A Pinpoint Stretch pass from David Noël then sent Mitch Fossier on Burman, and he outdated the Flames goalkeeper with a silky Deke to make three. Pearson again skipped with 11 seconds in the period to complete a sizzling spell of four goals in just 11 minutes and 36 seconds.
“You can’t go down like that in the first period,” admitted Flames defender Charlie Curti. “You have to be ready to go, and we are clearly not.
Justin Fazio replaced Burman for period two, and whatever Paul Dixon said during the break had the desired effect. Lewis Hook hit a loose puck just past 22 minutes to get the flames on the board, and 71 seconds later buried Cole Ully a rebound to reduce the shortage to 4-2. The visitors continued to have the period better, but were punished late: with 19 seconds left and after persistent flames, Jamal Watson gave the Puck away, allowing the Panthers 2-on-1 to break. Ollie Betteridge has set up fossier to restore the pillow of three goals from Nottingham.
“Every goal you get is huge for a team, and I try to contribute where I can. I was pretty happy tonight, the pucks went inside!” Pearson joked.
Guildford started again quickly in the third and was back in two when Jake Coughler scored at 41:12. Pearson completed his hat trick at 43:21 to put the Panthers another three, but Mathieu Gosselin responded two minutes later and Josh Waller hit the PowerPlay at 55:30 to make a game of one goal.
“We were proud of how we came back. You can take comfort in it, but it is disappointingly knowing how good we can be. It is one of those things we should learn. The comforting thing is that we know it is in us; it is just disappointing if you don’t put it together,” Curti added. “We are currently fighting through this malaise. We will eventually be better for it, but we have to continue working hard and push it through.”
The Panthers had to kill a late penalty after Ross Armor was called to crochet, and while Fazio was pulled with 72 seconds left, the last push of the Flames was stopped when Ully took over a stumbling sentence with 19 seconds.
“We have a lot of room for improvement second and third periods, but we finally managed it. We called in the jets in the first, so that energy is something we have to take tomorrow,” concluded Pearson.
Photo: Panters images
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