Panthers v Füchse
Nottingham Panthers
7 - 2
Lausitzer Füchse
Match Report
Nottingham Panthers skated to an impressive 7-2 victory over German DEL2 side Lausitzer Füchse in the GM the GM Memorial Trophy at the Motorpoint Arena.
Ryan Bednard started between the pipes with Rok Stojanovic as back-up in his first weekend back after returning to the club on a short-term contract.
Panthers were without Ollie Betteridge and Josh Tetlow who are away with GB in Denmark, so Bradley Bowering and Tom Palmer were called into the line-up.
Neilson and Berg score after early Foxes goal
The visitors took an early lead when Clarke Breitkreuz scored through the five-hole after he cut inside from the right-wing (2:32).
Panthers turned the game around with two goals in just under three minutes as Palmer and Jordan Kelsall set-up Logan Neilson to fire-in the equaliser from the slot (9:05).
Kelsall won the face-off which led to Adam Berg sending a superb shot bar down past Daniel Filimonow on the powerplay (11:53).
Panthers score four times in second period to take control
Otto Nieminen took advantage of giveaway in the Foxes defence and bundled the puck over the line at the near-post 18 seconds in the period two (20:18).
But the visitors closed the gap to one when Dominik Grafenthin went top corner short-side (22:08).
Stojanovic replaced Bednard just past the midway point of the second session and Panthers made it 4-2 when Berg used his strength to force the puck over the line from close-range (33:56).
Sam Herr fed Kristoff Kontos to score on the powerplay from the left-circle (35:02) and Berg sent Reid Stefanson on a breakaway to fire-in Nottingham's sixth (38:20)
Neilson scores his second to set seal on Panthers win
Neilson scored his second of the night with a superb finish in the top-right hand corner (43:10).
Panthers saw the game out with ease to secure victory and lift the GM the GM Memorial Trophy.