Panther dominate steelers to join Giants in CC final...
It was a shock performance from Nottingham Panthers against Sheffield Steelers on Tuesday as they won 6-4 at the NIC! It takes them to the challenge cup final for a record breaking 5th time in a row! For the third time out of the five, they will face Belfast Giants, the team they lost their league title to on Sunday night in Nottingham. The EIHL board will plan dates for it on Thursday so watch this space!
Panthers led 5-3 on aggregate after the first leg at the Motorpoint arena on Tuesday including a goal coming with just 6 seconds left! They made it 6-3 quickly and 1-0 on the night around the 5 minute mark when some nice one time passing play set Matt Ryan on a breakaway to zip it past Frank Doyle for 1-0 (pictured above).
2-0 came not long after when a short deflection by Leigh Salters was enough to double Panthers lead. 7-3 aggregate. 2-0 on the night. Shockingly,Panthers only had 4 shots in the first period embarrassing Doyle as half of those went in. Steelers had 13, but Craig Kowalski in goal for Panthers (whose recently returned from injury) shut the door, keeping a shutout so far!
It was a similar story at the start of the second period, Panthers got their team hat trick on the night when just 13 seconds in, Robert Famer scored his second of the semi-final series for 3-0. 8-3 aggregate. Eric Werner then made it 4-0 at 3:06. Salt was added to injury when Greg Jacina won a puck race to breakaway then pull a beautiful move putting the aggregate score to double digits. 10-3 aggregate, 5-0 on the night.
Steelers got on the board twice as the second interval approached though, Maxime Lacroix caught the Nottingham defense out and squeezed the puck in to get on the scoreboard then a bounce off Dustin Kohn gave hope of a comeback. 5-2/10-4.
In the third period though, Tom Norton scored his second goal of the season to keep up the pressure. 6-2/ 11-5.
But two more steelers goals were added but too little too late. Panthers back-up Dan Green got some ice time, then the hooter went for panthers first game since September with a full roster due to injury issues. Panthers are in the final! 6-4/11-7.
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