Sat 19 Apr 2025 - 10:00PM
PANTHERS BEAT STEELERS IN PLAYOFF SEMI-FINAL
Captain Sam Herr scored the overtime winner as Nottingham Panthers came from behind to beat Sheffield Steelers 4-3 in a pulsating semi-final to book a place in Sunday's playoff final against Cardiff Devils.
Panthers were 2-0 down in the second period before going 3-2 ahead and had to regroup after conceding a late equaliser to a freak goal.
Reid Stefanson returned to the line-up but Otto Nieminen missed out. Jason Grande started between the pipes with Luca Sheldon as back-up.
Steelers lead after first period
Herr went close inside the opening 90 seconds before Sheffield had the better of the opening stages with a handful of good chances.
Grande make a great save to deny Marc-Olivier Vallerand on a breakaway and also stopped Dominic Cormier's shot.
Steelers took the lead when Daniel Leavens fed Sam Tremblay who fired a one-time shot past Grande from the slot (18:43).
Zech goal reduces arrears
Grande stopped Bradon Whistle's close-range effort and stonewalled Vallerand for a second time.
Herr danced through the Sheffield defence but the puck was cleared out the crease and the Panthers captain was denied by Matt Greenfield from point-blank range.
Mitchell Balmas cut inside from the right and beat Grande nearside (34:14), before Hugo Roy tipped-in Cooper Zech's slot on the powerplay (37:40).
Steelers score late to send game to overtime
A superb piece of individual skill by Davis Bunz saw him skate into the offensive zone, round the back of the net and in-front before firing a shot towards goal which was tipped-in by Stefanson (42:00).
Tim Doherty's shot was saved and the rebound fell to Mitch Fossier to put Panthers ahead for the first time (57:41).
Steelers lifted Greenfield for the extra skater and equalised in fortunate fashion as a shot from Balmas came off the backboards and trickled in off Grande (58:39) to send the game to overtime.
Herr scores overtime game-winner
Panthers won the game with a superb play in four-on-four overtime.
Matt Spencer and Kristoff Kontos combined to set-up Herr who took his time before firing past Greenfield for a sublime game-winner (60:34).
It booked Panthers a place in Sunday's final against the Devils who secured a convincing 5-0 victory over Belfast Giants.