Panthers v Blaze

Match Report

Nottingham Panthers destroyed Coventry Blaze on New Year's Eve with a stunning 9-2 victory at the Motorpoint Arena.

Didrik Henbrant scored his second hat-trick of the season while Hugo Roy and Otto Nieminen both netted twice as Panthers ended 2024 in style.

Matt Alfaro returned to the line-up for the the first time since the end of November, but Sam Herr and Quinn Wichers missed out through injury.

Ryan Bednard started between the pipes with Jason Grande as back-up.

Three-goal first period for Panthers
Panthers scored twice in 42 seconds to open up a two-goal lead in the first period as Mitch Fossier and Alfaro combined to set-up Kristoff Kontos to score from the left-circle on the powerplay (9:46).

On the very next shift, Kontos fed Henbrant who raced onto the pass to score on the breakaway (10:28).

Bednard made a fantastic save to stop Nick Seitz on a Blaze two-on-one break and moments later, a stunning pass from the corner by Alfaro found Roy to bury the puck at the backdoor (15:13).

Panthers continue to dominate
Matt Spencer ripped one from just inside the blueline with 20 seconds of the restart (20:20), before Panthers lost Jaakko Niskala to injury after he was boarded by Grayson Constable.

Jordan Kelsall was thrown-out for cross-checking and Bednard made two excellent close-range saves on the resulting Blaze powerplay.

Outstanding skill from Cooper Zech created the chance for Nieminen to score from close-range (37:04), before Henbrant's pass towards goal was deflected past Mat Robson off a Blaze defenceman (38:46).

Henbrant scores second hat-trick of season
Henbrant completed his hat-trick as he stepped out from behind the net to slide the puck under Robson (40:43) and Roy buried the puck after a goalmouth scramble (41:38).

Chase Gresock scored on a breakaway short-handed (49:04) - a goal which saw Grande replace Bednard in the Panthers net.

Nieminen fired the puck across Robson for a beautiful second of the night (55:33), before Seitz scored Coventry's second from close-range (58:43).