Nottingham Panthers 4 - 3 Cardiff Devils

Faceoff: 19:30 - 22/03/13

Almost 7,000 fans saw Nottingham win the game with a 7th round penalty shot from Eric Werner. The destiny of the first winners of the Erhardt Conference will not be decided until Sunday. Like the other conference the next two days are going to be very exciting indeed!

Nottingham were back on home ice after four games on the road, whilst they were on their travels they clinched the league title with a 5-3 victory last Friday in Belfast. They also beat Sheffield 4-1 away on Wednesday and will take a three goal lead into the second leg of the Challenge Cup final on 2nd April.

As for tonight's game the Panthers netted the only goal of the opening period as David Clarke found the net at 6.37. The only other incident in the first period was in the 16th minute when Wilson (Panthers) and Marsh (Cardiff) were both binned for fighting.

The Devils got back on level terms as Rupert Quiney netted at 22.12. However, the game being level didn't last long as David Ling put the Panthers in front once again with a powerplay goal at 25.30. This was how it remained after forty minutes of hockey.

For the second time in the game Cardiff got back on level terms with a goal from Adam Harding at 44.10. The visitors then went in front at 46.51 with a strike from Luke Piggott, however, it was the hosts who netted the next goal from Bruce Graham at 54.37 to restore equality.

With no further goals in the remainder of the game and the five minutes of overtime it went to a penalty shootout. Both teams netted twice in the first three attempts and it then went to sudden death. Cardiff had no luck as they missed four whilst Nottingham missed three, their fourth by Werner proved to be the game winner.