Nottingham Panthers 3-0 Cardiff Devils

Panthers started their play-off campaign tonight against a Cardiff side that had convincingly won their first game against Coventry 4-1 on Thursday night.

The game started with Panthers looking the brighter side and not showing any hangover from the brilliant cup final display in Sheffield on Wednesday. Cugnet and Sundberg pulled out good saves before Panthers opened the scoring with 4:55 on the clock. Koivunoro had a shot well saved by Cugnet, but the rebound was backhanded home by Panthers captain Briane Thompson beneath the committed keeper.

Panthers added to their lead in the 9th minute when Lee Jinman scored a wonderful individual goal. He skated in from the blue-line and was stopped by a Devils' defenceman, but this didnt stop him pulling the puck out from his feet and scoring high past Cugnet.

Referee Nigel Boniface called Matt Myers of the Devils for a hooking penalty in the 17th minute, but despite good possession in the Cardiff zone, a solid PK unit saw out the penalty and the end of the first period.

The second period was pretty much a non-event, the only notable action being a holding penalty on Carlsson that came to nothing. You got the impression, though, that the Panthers weren't in first gear for long periods of time.

The third period started in livelier fashion than the second with Cardiff trying to make a fight of it, but Sundberg in the Panthers' goal was having a brilliant night on his birthday. Shots from Matulik and Myers were saved wonderfully, before bench minors for Cardiff then Panthers (delaying the game and too many men respectively) increased the tempo. Both penalties were killed and the Panthers faithful had to wait until 4 minutes remaining before securing the game. Jinman dispossesed Matulik before squaring it to Cup-Hero Kim Ahlroos to pass into the empty net from all of 1 yard.

MOTM awards went to Matulik for Cardiff and Thompson for Panthers (although general concensus states that it should have been Sundberg).

Panthers fans were concerned prior to the game that the Panthers could have had a hangover from the cup final on Wednesday, but the team were having none of it. The game was in Panthers' control from start to finish, although had a few bounces gone Cardiff's way, the result might have been a little less convincing.

The Panthers team took the opportunity after the match to waltz around with the newly claimed Challenge Cup trophy and did 2 laps of honour, the second led by fans-favourite GB netminder Geoff Woolhouse.

On this form, and with Sheffield stuttering slightly, you'd have to be mad to discount Panthers as one of the favourites to lift the play-off trophy in 2 weeks time.

With crowds in Sheffield and Belfast suffering slightly, it was good to see a crowd of well over 3,500 watching this game and the home fans would go home happy. Panthers won it 3 goals to 0

Daniel Newham