Panthers Win Challenge Cup

A second trophy of the current season, and a third in under a year, now belong to the Nottingham Panthers, following Didrik Henbrant’s overtime winner at the Motorpoint Arena.

Wednesday’s Challenge Cup success, extending their record to nine in total, added to the IIHF Continental Cup lifted at the start of this year, and the Play-offs success last April, Danny Stewart’s side seeing off the challenge of Coventry Blaze in OT, the second of two, 3-2OT successes (the first having gone to a shoot-out).

To get to this year’s final the Panthers qualified for the play-in match following a third-place group stage finish, with rivals Sheffield Steelers, and the Blaze, finishing above them, whilst being ahead of Cardiff Devils, Manchester Storm, and Guildford Flames – Belfast Giants and Glasgow Clan qualified from the other group.

The Panthers one six (one in over-time) and lost four of their ten group matches, having started back in mid-September with a 6-3 home loss to the Devils; the Panthers in-fact won only one of their first three Challenge Cup ties, a 3-1 win in Manchester on 19 September.

The finished the group stage strongly however, winning three straight, including the first overtime success over the Blaze (also 3-2) which qualified them for the elimination game, in Scotland, with the Clan, in mid-December.

A scoreless opening period was flipped in the remainder of the contest, the Panthers netting twice in both the second, and third periods, to reach the semi-finals, David Noel and Matthew Marcinew netting either side of a Tristin Langan score in the second, followed by Matt Spencer and Tim Doherty to wrap up victory in the third.

That set up a semi-final double header between Elite League rivals, the Panthers, and Sheffield Steelers, both sides winning their respective, home legs, the Steelers being edged despite a 4-2, overtime win in the second of the two games.

Stewart’s high-flying Panthers, currently second in the Elite Lague table (eight points behind the Giants, with seven games to play), claimed a 3-0 win at the Motorpoint Arena in the first game, all three scores coming in the first period, Brendan Harris’ brace either side of a score from Jakob Stridsberg, before the second leg, well that came all too close to going the other way.

The hosting Steelers pushed the Panthers all the way in the second leg, although Mikko Juusola’s first period score was quickly cancelled out by Marcinew, the hosts got within one overall come the end of the second, Robert Dowd’s double making it 3-1 to the hosts on the night, 4-3 to the Panthers overall.

Mitchell Balmas netted a power-play goal in the third period, levelling the contest for the Steelers, and taking to the tie into overtime, where Harris and Stridsberg combined for Bryan Lemos to score the decider; the Panthers progressing to the final courtesy of a 5-4 aggregate win.

Their opponents in the final, Coventry Blaze, had gone hammer-and-tong with Belfast Giants in the semi-final, the two sides sharing fourteen goals over the two legs, the Blaze winning 3-2 at home in the first, before a stunning, 6-3 success in Belfast in the second, courtesy of doubles from Matthew Gleason and Alessio Luciano.

As for the final itself, at the Motorpoint Arena this past midweek (Wednesday 18 March), and after a scoreless opening period, the Blaze led in the second through Michael Pelech, with Mitchell Fossier levelling eleven-and-a-half minutes later.

The third period saw the Panthers lead through Stridsberg, before Elijah Barriga tied the contest at twos-apiece from a power-play as the game headed into the fifty-second minute; Panthers netminder, Kevin Carr, twice denied the Blaze from close-range, before Henbrant finished a move involving Fossier and Lemos, to send the home crowd wild in celebration.

Having won the 2024-25 Play-offs, the Panthers have now added the 2025-26 IIHF Continental Cup, and the 2025-26 Challenge Cup, to their recent haul of silverware, and they’ll certainly be looking to add more come the season’s end…