Devils v Panthers

Match Report

Nottingham Panthers were beaten 6-4 on the road by Cardiff Devils in the Challenge Cup.

Defeat means Panthers missed out on an automatic place in the semi-finals and will face a play-in game at home against Glasgow Clan for a place in the final four of the cup.

Panthers were without forward Matt Alfaro and also netminder Ryan Bednard who was rested as a precaution.

Jason Grande, who joined the Panthers this week, made his debut between the pipes with Luca Sheldon as back-up.

Betteridge, Doherty and Herr score in first period
Didrik Henbrant shot just wide in the opening 30 seconds before Panthers went ahead when great perseverance by Otto Nieminen in the offensive zome saw the puck fall to Ollie Betteridge who beat Ben Bowns with a neat wrist-shot (4:21).

Grande made a huge close-range save at one end and Panthers broke down the ice as Reid Stefanson fed Tim Doherty in the slot to make it 2-0 two-and-a-half minutes later (6:55).

Mitch Fossier extended his point streak to nine games - scoring at least a point in every game since he joined the club - as he set-up Sam Herr to bury the puck from the slot (13:23).

Fossier makes it four before Cardiff fight back
Panthers completed a superb five-minute penalty-kill early in the second period after Josh Tetlow was thrown-out for an interference call that saw Ben Davies collide with the goal frame.

Matt Spencer hit the bar and moments later, Quinn Wichers fed Fossier to make it 4-0 with a top-shelf finish from the right-circle (29:49).

Grande continued to make a string of great saves on his debut, but could do nothing about Tyler Busch's close-range rebound to get Devils on the board (30:59).

Cole Sanford cut inside from the right and slipped the puck under Grande to reduce the arrears for Cardiff to two (34:56).

Devils stun Panthers with dramatic turnaround
Kohen Olischefski went short-side from the left-circle to make it a one-goal game (45:31).

Henbrant hit the bar on a breakaway before Bowns made great saves to deny Cooper Zech and Nieminen on the powerplay.

After Grande made a big save at one end, Betteridge was stopped by Bowns on a breakaway moments later.

Bowns was injured making the stop and was replaced by Mac Carruth just past the midway part of the third period, before Sanford drifted in from the right and scored the equaliser on the powerplay (51:18).

Olischefski netted from close-range to put Devils ahead for the first time (57:58), before Busch sealed the win with an empty-net goal (59:30).