Game Preview - 22nd and 24th

19th Mar 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

This weekend see’s the Devils take on this year’s league winners the Nottingham Panthers on Friday away in Nottingham and Sunday at home in Cardiff.  Friday’s game  presents the Devils with the Golden Opportunity to “spoil” the Panthers party as they will be presented the league trophy after the match. 

This will be the 8th meeting between the teams with the series currently standing at 5 – 2 in favor of the league winners the Panthers. Prior to the weekend’s games the Panthers face the Steelers in the first leg of the challenge cup final on Wednesday so could be a little worse for wear Friday.

Friday last week saw the Panthers in action against their closest Rival the Belfast Giants in what was a must win game for the Giants if they wanted any hope of stopping the Panthers league charge. 

The opening period began in an explosive manner as David Clarke (Panthers) and Brock Matheson (Giants) went toe to toe, while Daymen Rycroft (Giants) and Kelsey Wilson (Panthers) also dropped the gloves, all inside the first six minutes.

Despite Nottingham having the better of the early possession, net minder Craig Kowalski had to be at his best to keep out Jeff Mason and Noah Clarke as Belfast created the better chances.

Clarke gave Belfast the lead with a penalty shot (17:45) after being hauled down, but Panthers responded with a powerplay goal from Bruce Graham from the right circle only 20 seconds later.

The Giants made a great start to the second period when Kevin Saurette finished off a well-worked move at the back door at 21:15, and Panthers hit back quickly again with Clarke scoring from the left circle (23:29).

David Ling’s patient finish and great move on Stephen Murphy put Nottingham ahead for the first time at 29:20, but this time it was Belfast’s turn to come from behind as Adam Keefe netted on a breakaway after a terrific pass from Craig Peacock 41 seconds before the second intermission.

Pat Galivan was left alone in the slot to put Panthers ahead at 56:49 on the powerplay and Matt Francis secured the win with an empty-net goal (59:39).

Final Score Panthers (Win the league) 5 – 3 (don’t win the league) Belfast Giants

The second leg of the double header saw Nottingham’s 12 game winning run came to an end but after the night before league title win they probably didn’t mind to much.

The Giants took the in the opening twenty minutes with goals from Andrew Fournier on the powerplay at 7.49 and a Rob Sandrock strike at 13.34.

Frustration boiled over at 25.36 as Jason Beckett of the Panthers received 5 for cross checking plus 5 for fighting and a game misconduct and Giants Adam Keefe 2 for instigator, 5 for fighting plus a 10 minute misconduct his team mate Darryl Lloyd also got 2 for slashing. The resulting powerplay saw Panthers net their first as Bruce Graham found the net at 26.18.

Two goals in the first four minutes of the third from the Giants sealed the win. The first came at 41.02 from Daymen Rycroft and this was followed by a second goal of the game for Sandrock as he netted as the Giants had a man advantage. Panthers did get another from the stick of David Ling at 45.31 but with Giants netting another powerplay goal at 52.46 from Kevin Saurette it was game over.

Belfast Giants 5 – 2 Nottingham Panthers 

A quick look at the Panthers roster and their scoring so far this season against the Devils gives us three guys that the Devils will clearly need to shut down those being - 

David Ling on 9 Goals
Pat Galivan on 4 Goals 
Matthew Myers on 3 Goals

In nets the Panthers have the league’s leading Goalie Craig Kowalski on 91.9% save percentage and goals against average of just 2.06.

For the Devils our ones too watch against the Panthers so far this season have been-

Stuart MacRae on 3 goals 
Max Birbraer on 3 goals
Chris Blight on 2 goals
Mark Smith on 2 goals

Over all the Devils have struggled against the largely injury free, spare import carrying and annoyingly consistently good Panthers this season so this weekend massively short benched I think we may well struggle.

The Devils desperately need to take a point or two from these two games in order to improve their chances in the play offs so expect some fireworks on Sunday as we try and grab the win at Home I’d expect. 

We also have an actual Picture of the Panthers with the Cup (Well done to them, well deserved after a great season)

With Friday almost certainly being a sell out in Nottingham and with lots of us not able to make the trip up 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 you can chip in with some comments on the night by contacting us at matchnightlive@gmail.com