Sun 12 Apr 2026 - 10:30PM

HEARTBREAK FOR PANTHERS IN QUARTER-FINAL

Nottingham Panthers 4-4 Manchester Storm (5-6 aggregate)

There was heartbreak for Nottingham Panthers as Manchester Storm booked their place at Elite League Playoff Finals Weekend with a dramatic victory after a penalty shootout at the Motorpoint Arena.

After Storm won Saturday's first leg 2-1, the game looked over in the third period with the visitors leading 3-2 on the night and by two on aggregate.

But Panthers scored twice in the final seven minutes, including an aggregate equaliser by Didrik Henbrant with 25 seconds left in regulation-time, to force overtime.

After no goals in the extra period, Brady Gilmour was the only scorer in the shootout to send the travelling fans wild as Storm reached the Final Four for the first time in the Elite League era.

Matt Alfaro and Brendan Harris were unavailable because of injury, but Jaord Hilderman passed a fitness test at warm-up and returned to the line-up.

Kevin Carr started between the pipes with Luca Sheldon as back-up.

Fossier equalises for the Panthers
Panthers outshot Storm 17-7 in the first period and created some golden opportunities with Zsombor Garát, Didrik Henbrant and Matt Spencer all going close.

Carr made a good save to deny Stephen Johnson but the visitors went ahead when Brandon Cutler converted on an odd-man rush (05:37).

Panthers equalised on the night when Garát's shot went wide and the puck bounced off the backboards to Mitch Fossier on the doorstep to reduce the arrears (15:46).

Noël scores but Storm stay ahead on aggregate
Danny Stewart's side continued to pile on the pressure as Cooper Zech and Chase Pearson both hit the pipes.

Storm regained their two-goal aggregate lead when a feed from behind the net found Loren Ulett in the slot (33:45).

But Panthers hit back as the period drew to a close as David Noël's shot through traffic from the blueline beat Drew DeRidder (38:37).

Late drama sends tie to overtime
Gary Haden scored a beautiful powerplay goal with a pinpoint shot from the left-circle (42:58) which stunned and deflated the home crowd for a few moments.

But the outstanding #PanthersNation support found their voice once again - and Panthers found their feet - and Matt Marcinew went top-shelf from the left-circle to level on the night (53:00).

The roof was lifted off the Motorpoint Arena when Panthers scored on the six-on-five play with Carr lifted for the extra skater when Henbrant redirected Noël's shot past DeRidder (59:35).

Shootout heartbreak for Panthers
Overtime was scoreless but Carr made three outstanding saves with the best of them denying Gilmour on a Storm odd-man rush.

The shootout was tense and both sides missed four each, before Gilmour beat Carr and DeRidder denied Pearson as Storm secured the win to send them to the Final Four.