Nottingham Panthers begin defence strong

The Panthers welcomed the Hull Stingrays to the NIC on Saturday night, only to send the Stingrays home with a heavy defeat.

It didn't take long for the Panthers to register their first goal of the season, less than seven minutes into the game, Matt Francis found Robert Lachowicz to make it 1 - 0 to the home side.
Nottingham continued to press hard in the period, eventually finishing with 19 shots and three of them found the net. The second goal of the game was theirs aswell, this time Brandon Benedict beat Ben Bowns to make it 2 - 0 with 13:20 played, but the Stingrays stung back.

One of the standout players in Hull last year didn't take long to show his scoring touch again, just 61 seconds after they went 2 - 0 down, Jereme Tendler pulled a goal back at 14:21 to make it a 2 - 1 game.

But as soon as the Stingrays pulled back, the Panthers charged on again as new signing Bob Wren opened his Panthers scoring account with less than five minutes to go in the period to give Nottingham a 3 - 1 lead with 20 minutes played.

Tendler once more offered his contribution with an early goal in the second period to make it a one goal game once more, and then long serving Stingray Jason Silverthorn tied the game at 3 with still over 30 minutes to go.

Sadly for the Stingrays that's where it ended scoring wise for them as Nottingham retook the lead before the period was out thanks to a second goal from Bob Wren to give the Panthers a 4 - 3 lead with 20 minutes left.

Robert Lachowicz continued his impressive night with a second goal early in the third to make it 5 - 3, quickly followed by Chris murray just over a minute later to make it 6 - 3.

That spelt the end for Ben Bowns as Greg Blais came in in relief in hopes to spark any slim chance of a comeback but it was in vain.

With less than 10 minutes left Matt Francis got a goal on the board with an assist going to Robert Lachowicz who grabbed his third point of the night before he completed his hat-trick with the Panthers ninth goal of the night which sealed the game with a 9 - 3 victory on opening night.

Deservedly so the Man of the Match awards went to Hat-trick hero Robert Lachowicz for the Panthers and double scorer Jereme Tendler for the Stingrays.

Nottingham will travel to Sheffield tomorrow to take on the Steelers while the Stingrays return home hoping for a better night against the Braehead Clan tomorrow night.

Rest of the league scores

Belfast Giants 5 - 0 Edinburgh Capitals

Braehead Clan 1 - 2 Dundee Stars

Coventry Blaze 2 - 4 Sheffield Steelers

Fife Flyers 2 - 5 Cardiff Devils

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