Wed 14 Sep 2022 - 2:00PM

HAMMOND LOOKS AHEAD TO TRIP TO MANCHESTER

The Nottingham Panthers return to action on Friday as they take to the road to face Manchester Storm in the Challenge Cup.

It's the first of two games in as many days as Panthers then return home to host Coventry Blaze in the Premier Sports Elite League on Saturday (7pm face-off). Click here to buy tickets.

Friday night against the Storm is Nottingham's first Challenge Cup game of the season - and one man who is no stranger to Altrincham is Panthers forward Mike Hammond.

The 32-year-old scored 158 points in 109 Elite League games for the Storm from 2017 until 2019, so knows what it takes to be successful in the small rink.

"You have to keep it as simple as possible, get a lot of shots on net and get bodies to the net," said Hammond.

"You need to be ready to think fast, everything happens a lot faster in a small rink. It's about simple plays, putting pucks to the net."

Hammond has been a proflic scorer since first coming to the UK to play for Braehead Clan in the 2016-17 season and last year, he posted 90 points in 49 matches for Hannover Scorpions in Germany's third tier.

Last Saturday, after Andrew Johnston scored the equaliser with 69 seconds remaining, Hammond netted 28 seconds into overtime to help Panthers beat Guildford 4-3 in their opening Elite League game of the season.

"It was massive," continued Hammond. "Anytime you can pull a win like that, a character win, it's always big.

"Especially at home in your home-opener, it was good.

"But we know we can improve and we want to reverse the loss (against Coventry) from Sunday and get going again."