Coventry Blaze 1-4 Nottingham Panthers (Friendly) 31.08.22
Nottingham Panthers impressed on Wednesday night as they beat Coventry Blaze 4-1 at the Skydome in their third game of pre-season.
Alex Dubeau was given his second start in goal after appearing in the shootout defeat against Sheffield Steelers on Saturday night.
The Panthers took an early lead as Craig Moore’s deflected pass found Jordan Kelsall, who broke into the zone and produced a superb shot across the body of Paavo Hosla (2:16).
Coventry hit the pipes through Jack Billings moments after a powerplay, while Dubeau produced a point-blank save from Johnny Curran.
Nottingham made it 2-0 on a five-on-three powerplay as Luke Ferrara – against his former club – fed JC Brassard for a one-timer from the slot (13:57).
Panthers made a quick start to the second session when Hammond created room for himself on the left wing, cut inside and fired home from the top of the left circle (20:56).
Dubeau made a huge stop to deny Billings on a breakaway, before a well-worked goal increased Nottingham’s lead to four.
Brett Welychka and Adam Brady combined to set up a three-on-two and Hammond, who was the trailing man, rounded Hosla with ease (31:42).
Dubeau then made two successive excellent point-blank saves as the Blaze pushed to get on the board in the early stages of the third period. But his shutout was broken on a Blaze powerplay as a nice move saw Curran score at the backdoor (54:11).
After Nathanael Halbert tripped Dubeau, a mini brawl broke out in the closing stages which saw the Panthers netminder given a game misconduct for illegal equipment.
Jack Berry was called into action for the final five minutes and made a couple of good saves on the Blaze powerplay.
Nottingham return to ice with another friendly match this weekend as they take on Cardiff Devils in the first leg of the Aladdin Cup (7pm face off) at the Motorpoint Arena, a day later they travel to Wales for the second leg.
*Main image @PanthersIHC a good night ahead of the campaign at Coventry.
