Flyers v Panthers
Fife Flyers
9 - 7
The Nottingham Panthers
Match Report
The Nottingham Panthers were beaten 9-7 by Fife Flyers in a crazy game in Kirkcaldy on Saturday night.
Logan Neilson and Simon Després scored their first goals for the Panthers in a 16-goal thriller.
Panthers were without suspended forward Félix Paré, as well as injured trio Ollie Betteridge, Josh Tetlow and Tyler Welsh.
Defenceman Myles McGurty returned to the line-up, but Joe Hazeldine was a late scratch and missed the game through illness.
Després scores first Panthers goal
Després put Panthers ahead after being set-up by McGurty and Hugo Roy (2:10).
Mathieu Lemay sent Roy clear who rounded Shane Owen for Nottingham's second (4:20), before Jonas Emmerdahl reduced the arrears with a wrist-shot into the top corner (6:03).
Teemu Pulkkinen tied the game up with a low shot from the hash marks (17:45), but Panthers were back ahead two minutes later when Mike Caruso fired a belter from the blueline on a delayed penalty (19:46).
Panthers lead 5-4 at second intermission
Jake Ryczek got the final touch to a scramble around the net (29:17) to made it 4-2 to the Panthers, but Troy Lajeunesse's rebound (31:03) and Humitz's backhand top-shelf finish brought the hosts level (38:01).
Alexander Lunsjö put Nottingham back in-front just before the second intermision with a bullet into the top corner (39:11).
Neilson scores first professional goal
McGurty's long-range shot went through Owen as Panthers opened up a two-goal lead again (41:08), but Fife scored three goals in five minutes to turn the game on its head.
Teemu Pulkkinen fired low to make it a one-goal game (41:52), Humitz scored his second from behind the redline which hit Robinson's shoulder to bounce into the net (47:48) and Lajeunesse's one-timer put Fife ahead (48:37).
A special moment for Neilson soon followed as he got the puck in the slot from Westin Michaud and fired in his first professional goal to equalise (50:11).
Johan Eriksson's scored at the backdoor as Fife edged ahead again (51:23) and Lajeunesse completed his hat-trick with an empty-netter (58:14).