GMB PANTHERS beat Belfast on Valentine's Day
It's as you were at the top of the standings with the three top teams all winning one and losing one on the weekend. Nottingham beat Belfast 3-1 on Sunday.
The Valentine's Day clash was delayed for thirty minutes as Belfast waited for the kit to arrive at the TrentFM Arena and got off to an explosive start with Kevin Bergin and Sean McMorrow going toe-to-toe in an old fashioned first face-off tear-up.
The only goal of the first period saw the visitors take the lead short-handed but the home side hit back when Cameron Mann's precision pass set up Jay Henderson at the back door for his first home goal since joining the club and Mann did it again for David Clarke to score the powerplay game winner at 25.38.
The gameplan continued to work in the third and when the visitors backed off Stevie Lee fired home off the ringht wing to seal the victory in the third.
Elsewhere Coventry beat Sheffield (5-1), Edinburgh beat Newcastle (5-2) and Cardiff shut-out Hull (7-0).
So the top three teams all won one and lost one on the weekend as the league again showed how competitive and tight the race is going to be this year.
The GMB Panthers home game started with an on ice proposal Valentine's Day proposal which drew a big round of applause when the plot to get fan Richard Beighton onto the ice saw him say "yes" to Angie Walker after she went down on one knee, and it ended with over five thousand pounds raised at the charity game worn shirt auction for the Teenage Cancer Trust in Nottingham.
You can hear reaction to the game on Panthers Radio with Xynomix where we talk to coach Corey Neilson, and Kevin Bergin AND there's a clip of commentary from the DVD of the fireworks at the start.