Nottingham Panthers reward for beating Coventry Blaze in the semi-finals of the Elite Series, yes, you guessed it… Sheffield Steelers, in the first ever final of the competition, how fitting that the two biggest teams in Ice Hockey, the two biggest rivals, would meet on these terms.
Sheffield beat Manchester Storm 8-3 in the second leg of their semi after a 5-4 first leg win whilst Nottingham of course beat Coventry, 2-0 and 4-1 earlier in the week, setting up this bank holiday weekends best of three leg affair, match one on Saturday night, match two on Sunday with a final face off, if required on Monday night with all games scheduled for 7pm at the Nottingham Arena.
Should any of the teams win the first two matches the third will not go ahead, should the sides win one each, all will rely on Monday’s result as to who takes home the trophy.
In the Elite Series so far, Sheffield won the first two, 3-2 and 8-4 before Nottingham won the third group match between the two sides 4-3 and the last in Over Time 5-4, everything is in the balance to suggest the weekends ties will be cracking advertisement for GB ice hockey ahead of the World Championship in Latvia later this month.
Star players include Tanner Eberle who leads the way in scoring with 27pts, Sheffield have three of the competitions top five point scorers with Liam Kirk and Josef Mikyska also registering over 20. The Panthers best is Christophe Boivin on 19, one ahead of teammate Kevin Domingue on 18.
Nottingham do have top goalie though, as Jackson Whistle from his eight games played tops the saves conversion with 91.91%.
All three games will be available to watch via the Elite League website with more information on how to stream here.
*Main image @PanthersIHC Sheffield will face off against Nottingham in the final.
