Devils Vs Panthers - 12th Jan 2013

10th Jan 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Saturday night see’s the Devils in action away in Nottingham against the Panthers.  The Devils away record in Nottingham has always been less the stellar ( I looked and can’t bring myself to list the figures..) so it’s going to be a big ask for the Devils to come away with the two points. This season against the Panthers the record stands in the favour of the Panthers who lead the series 3 – 2.

We took a good look at the Panthers squad at the start of the season which you can check out here  http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/devils-vs-panthers-challenge-cup-preview/  since this look they have seen the return of Guy Lepine, the departure of Martin Tuma, Coach Corey Neilson has moved to the bench full time, the arrival and departure of an NHL “ Star” on a lock out contract, the signing of  “slashy “ forward Kelsey Wilson and the return of  forward David Beauregard as a spare forward for injury cover. There may have been more arrivals and departures but these look to be the key ones.

Speaking about his latest arrival Coach Neilson gushed the following - 

 "Beau gives us lots of options, of course, but he is coming in on a contract that says he is an injury replacement. “

"Beau is not coming to rotate through to beat somebody out of a spot.”

"The team has great chemistry at the moment and that was the worry of bringing an extra player in. Guys play tight, they get worried they are going to lose their spot, especially when there's someone as good as Beau there to step up.”

Last weekend the Panthers were in action twice against the Coventry Blaze first up at home on Saturday.

The last time these two teams came up against one another two days before Christmas the Panthers skated out the Skydome with a 8 nil whitewash. This time the Blaze put up a better show as they held the Panthers to a solitary goal. The only drawback for the visitors was they failed to find the net once again, as Kowalski recorded his sixth shutout of the season, one of which was shared.

The only goal of the game came in the second period as Bruce Graham for the Panthers was on hand to net not only the game opener but also the game winner at 23.22.

The score line could have been much like the last time as the Panthers fired a total of 52 shots on Peter Hirsch and he turned away all but one – unfortunately for Hirsch the one he let by him turned out to be the game winner.

For a final score of Nottingham Panthers 1- 0  Coventry Blaze

Sunday saw the Panthers move six points clear at the top of the league standings and three in front in the “Erhardt Conference” after completing a four-point weekend in back to back encounters against Blaze.
But Corey Neilson’s men had to do it the hard way, coming back from a half way deficit to overpower their hosts in the final period.

A shot filled (35) but goalless opening period had the fans well entertained but the breakthrough came at 26.03 when Dustin Cameron fired Blaze ahead. Shortly afterwards Panthers were given their third powerplay opportunity of the night and took it when David Ling fired in at 32.09 to tie the game and leave it nicely poised going into period three.

The next goal was always going to be important and it saw the visitors ahead at 45.45 with Jonathan Weaver on target. Panthers were turning the screw at this point but it was still a one-goal game until the insurance came shorthanded at 52.42 with Matt Francis the scorer.

The scoring was completed when Robert Lachowicz made it 4-1 into the empty Blaze net with 29 seconds remaining and it ended yet another successful weekend for the NIC based team.

Final score Coventry Blaze 1- 4  Nottingham Panthers

Speaking after the games Neilson said: "Coventry played really well. They had players missing and their plan was to frustrate us and stay back, relying on their goaltender (Peter Hirsch), who played great. They defended pretty hard, too."

But after the 1-0 win, Neilson stressed: "Sometimes you score eight, sometimes you get one but two points is two points and that's all that counts. We did more than enough to win and had perhaps nine or ten great scoring chances we didn't take. On another night it might happen, but a win's a win."

Worryingly for the Devils the Panthers heavily outshot the Blaze in both games – 52-20 on Saturday and 58-30 the following night.

Scoring for the Panthers is led by David Ling on 56 points, Matt Francis on 42 points Brue Graham on 40 points and Pat Galivan on 37 points. Looking at their performances against the Devils it’s been David Ling on 4 goals ,Pat Galivan on 3 goals , Matthew Myers on 3 goals and  David Clarke on  2 goals who have done the damage for the Panthers against us this so far this season.

In nets the Panthers are back stopped by the dependable Craig Kowalski who’s save percentage is 91.5% and goals against average is 2.09.

Panthers come into the game at Full strength with Kelsey Wilson's suspension is now complete and with their spare players ready to step in should there be any injuries before the game. .

Before a tough spell of three games in a week, Panthers have the 'luxury' of playing just once this weekend against the Devils. Speaking about the game Panthers coach Neilson had this to say d: "It's all a bit hit and miss with Cardiff at the moment; you don't know what you're going to get from them. They may have more bodies in to face us than they've had recently, I don't know. But if we play fast, we'll be OK."

Oddly enough that comment from Panthers Neilson has been largely echoed by Devils owner Paul Ragan “I believe we have become complacent in our approach and I have demanded more from both management and players.” Fingers crossed we will see a strong reaction from the team to these comments.

So far this season it’s been the Devils first line that have done the damage to the Panthers with Mac Faulkner having notched 3 goals , Max Birbraer also on 3 goals ,Chris Blight on 2 gaols and  Stuart MacRae also on 2 goals. For details of our last game against the Panthers you can check out our game review here http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/it-was-a-close-one-/

Coming into the game the Devils should be at full strength with last weekend seeing the return from Injury of Max Birbraer.  

We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” Match Night Live service for these games, expect name calling and one eyed bias in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out by texting updates (we’d be happy to hear from you) or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

For details of upcoming away travel with Red Army Travel you can get all the information here http://the-inferno.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6212