Sun 20 Apr 2025 - 9:45PM

PANTHERS WIN PLAYOFF CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

Nottingham Panthers beat Cardiff Devils 4-3 in second period of overtime to win the 2025 Elite League Playoff Championship title.

Panthers led 3-0 but were pegged back to 3-3 and both sides had goals disallowed in overtime on the most breathtaking of fashion.

Davis Bunz failed a late fitness test at warm-up so Otto Nieminen returned to the line-up as Panthers went with 12 forwards and six defenceman.

Jason Grande started between the pipes with Luca Sheldon as back-up.

Herr gives Panthers first-period lead
Panthers took the lead after only 81 seconds as Herr redirected a shot by Cooper Zech past Ben Bowns (01:21).

Grande made two big stops to deny Ryan Barrow and Brett Perlini - and also a huge reflex save following a deflection from a face-off play by the Devils.

Second of the night for Herr as Panthers lead 3-1
Evan Mosey had two long-range shots saved by Grande in quick succession, before Kristoff Kontos and Tim Doherty provided the assists to set-up Herr to go short-side top-shelf for his second of the night (25:31).

Mitch Fossier put away a rebound as Panthers stretched their advantage on the powerplay (27:50) and three minutes later, Devils forward Tyler Busch was thrown-out on a fighting major following an incident behind the Panthers goal with Matt Alfaro.

Cardiff gave themselves a lifeline in the closing stages of the second period as Kohen Olischefski scored from close-range (38:53).

Devils score twice to force overtime
Grande made a neat pad save on Zach O'Brien in the early stages of the third session, but could nothing about Joey Martin's superb top-shelf finish from the right-circle (49:11).

Cardiff had the momentum and moments after a powerplay, Gleason Fournier sent a bullet past Grande to tie the game (56:13).

Fossier scores winner in second overtime
Panthers thought they'd won it on the powerplay in overtime through Fossier's close-range finish and the goal was checked and cleared by the officials for a kicking motion.

Cardiff used a video challenge for interference on Ben Bowns and the goal was dramatically overturned after a long video review.

In a remarkable twist, Jarrod Gourley thought he'd won it for the Devils but Panthers challenged the goal and that too was overturned for netminder inference.

The game was finally won when Zech set-up Fossier to beat Bowns from close-range and lift the roof off the Motorpoint Arena.