19 Feb 2025, 19:30 | Regular season | Motorpoint Arena Nottingham |
Nottingham Panthers | 2-4 | Guildford Flames |
Periods: Shots: | 2-0 (12-7) | 0-1 (14-11) | 0-3 (12-18) | Total: 38-36 |
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Referees: #2 David Good, Truswell  |  Spectators: 6836 |
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Goals and assists
Guildford Flames inflicted Nottingham Panthers’ first regulation
defeat in over a month, coming back from two down at a sold-out
Motorpoint Arena to take a 4-2 win.
Ethan Strang hit a post early on but the Panthers were the
dominant team in the opening period. The home side were deservedly ahead
at 6:44 when a Cooper Zech throw on net from the point took a wild
deflection off a Flames defenseman to fool Eamon McAdam and bounce into
the back of his net. A well-worked play at 18:37 put the Panthers two
up, with Zsombor Garat firing home from the point off a Kris Kontos
pass.
The Panthers were almost three up early in period two off another
fortunate bounce – this time a pass into the slot hitting Mike
Crocock’s skate and almost deflecting past McAdam who made the same.
Guildford did well to hang around in the game, and after a period of
pressure found their way back into things - Matt Alvaro receiving the
puck in the slot and finishing nicely over Jason Grande's glove hand at
36:41.
That goal changed the complexion of the team-talks through 40
minutes, and gave the Flames life. Didrik Henbrant's tripping minor 101
seconds into period three gave the visitors the perfect chance to tie
the game, and they took full advantage just eight later when Daniel
Catenacci got on the bouncing rebound of a Ryan Tait shot and fired it
home.
The Panthers ran into some penalty trouble with 11 minutes
remaining in the third, and it was a Delay of Game call for shooting the
puck out of bounds that led to the game-winner. Travis Brown broke his
stick trying to fire a shot towards Grande, but made enough contact with
the puck that it broke kindly for Jack Jacome to fire home at the far
post with Grande totally wrong-footed. 3-2Flames with 3:40 to play.
Eamon McAdam made a big save on Kris Kontos speeding towards him
with 46 seconds to play as the Panthers pushed for a late equaliser.
Danny Stewart called his timeout and pulled Grande at that stoppage, and
his side controlled the puck for the next 16 seconds until McAdam was
able to freeze the puck again. A bad bounced on the hosts allowed the
Flames to break out of the zone 2-on-1, with Josh Waller unselfishly
passing to Jack Jacome to slide the puck into the empty net and settle
the game with 20 seconds remaining.