15 Feb 2025, 19:00 | Regular season | Motorpoint Arena Nottingham |
Nottingham Panthers | 6-2 | Coventry Blaze |
Periods: Shots: | 2-1 (13-5) | 0-0 (16-5) | 4-1 (5-9) | Total: 34-19 |
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Referees: #23 Andrew Miller, #3 Tom Pering  |  Spectators: 6786 |
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Goals and assists
Nottingham Panthers opened up a four-point cushion in third, and
moved back to within nine points of the league leaders, with a 6-2 win
over Coventry Blaze in front of a sell-out crowd at the Motorpoint
Arena.
Period one had almost everything and was enthralling
entertainment. Josh Tetlow found himself in all kinds of space and beat
Mat Robson with a bottle-popping high finish just 4:30 into the game.
Chase Gresock was sent through 1-on-0 but couldn’t finish from a tight
angle to tie the game, but the Blaze were level at 6:10 as fired home
from the slot after being fed the puck from Michael Regush.
26 seconds later, Sam Herr crashed home a Mitchell Fossier pass
through a crowd of players to put the Panthers back ahead. They could
have moved further in front when they were awarded a penalty shot at
12:50, but Robson had done his homework on Kris Kontos and stopped the
five-hole attempt.
The period ended with the Panthers 2-1 ahead, although their lead probably should have been greater.
After a first period full of chances, the second was less open. A
couple of whacks around Jason Grande on a loose puck drew the
displeasure of the Panthers defense, while later in the period Tetlow
and Grayson Constable dropped the gloves and took a fighting major each.
As the period drew on, the Blaze were struggling to get pucks out of
their zone and had Robson to thank for saves off Tetlow, Fossier and
Herr to name but a few.
Heading the other way, Alessio Luciani was moments away from
breaking 2-on-1 for the Blaze, but got the puck caught in his feet and
the opportunity went by. The visitors did well to see out the period
just one behind.
The Panthers made their dominance count with two goals just over
four minutes apart to start period three. Tim Doherty tipped a Matt
Spencer shot just in front of Robson to put the home side 3-1 up 88
seconds into the third, and took Didrik Henbrant's pass nicely before
dekeing Robson to finish at 45:28. Mitchell Fossier made it 5-1 a little
over two minutes later as the home side began to cruise home. Zach
Heintz pulled one back for the Blaze with 6:24 to go, but Reid Stefanson
rounded off the scoring with just under four minutes to play to give
the Panthers their first win in two.