Nottingham Panthers 2-4 Manchester Storm (Elite Series) 21.04.21

The Nottingham Panthers went into Wednesday night’s game looking to complete a round robin sweep of the Manchester Storm and move off of the foot of the table but a flat performance cost them the chance to climb up to second in the standings.

Ben Bowns got the start in goal for the Panthers this time opposite Sean Bonar for the Storm.

A high scoring first period started with Ben Lake (1.49) beating Bowns with a good deflection in front, Nottingham answered back through Brett Perlini (12.10) who made no mistake to beat Bonar on a breakaway.

Maxime Fortier (13.46) but the Storm back in front just over a minute later but Perlini (16.38) got his second of the game from the tightest of angles, after Kevin Domingue slipped him the puck, to send the teams into the first intermission tied at two.

Nottingham came out flat in the second period and were lucky not to find themselves behind inside the opening minute when Josh Batch hit the post with a shot from the blue line.

The iron came to the Panthers rescue once more as Fortier got a good shot off and that forced Head Coach Tim Wallace to burn his time-out (26.15) with more than half of the game remaining in order to try and galvanize his troops.

Nottingham came into the game more after the time-out but with Robert Lachowicz (29.06) in the box for hooking the Storm forged back ahead, Cam Critchlow (31.03) giving Bowns no chance with a tip in front on the man advantage.

Bowns came up with a flashy glove save shortly after the Storm goal to keep the deficit at one for the Panthers but they went into the second intermission trailing and needing a big third period performance to lift themselves off of the foot of the Elite Series table.

Try as they might the Panthers couldn’t generate any pressure on the Storm net in a scrappy third period and Martin Gran (55.57) put the game to bed with a late goal on an odd man rush.

That wrapped up a disappointing night for the Panthers as, despite a late powerplay, they couldn’t find a way through and fell to a Wednesday night defeat.

*Main image @PanthersIHC the Panthers defence couldn’t keep out the Storm as Manchester get one back to stop a clean sweep.