➡️ Monday Review: The Long Good Sunday
Panthers seal play-off win in epic finale
Usually the only shiny thing you encounter on Easter Sunday is the foil on a chocolate egg. Nottingham Panthers ended up with something much nicer, but they really had to work to earn it.
Danny Stewart and his men somehow found the energy late on Sunday night to celebrate what turned into a final that will be long remembered by ice hockey fans all over the country.
It wasn’t just that this version of the Panthers are arguably the most popular winners of the competition since maybe Coventry Blaze years ago.
Or that the game went to double overtime. Or even what they thought was a game winning goal in the first OT period - one for each team - where both needed video reviews to tell the players to sheepishly retrieve their discarded equipment to continue the game.
It was the sheer guts and determination that got Panthers to this. And it wasn’t just on Sunday night.
The tragedy that unfolded in October 2023 when Adam Johnson sadly passed away will never be forgotten.
Panthers were profoundly wounded by it, but as time continued, they somehow got through last season to see out a very difficult campaign. That in itself was a massive achievement. Even if there was no celebration or cup to show for it.
Video courtesy of Premier Sports
Head coach Jonathan Paredes moved on and Panthers GM Omar Pacha turned to Danny Stewart, a man who knows the EIHL terrain like the back of his hand. A man also in mourning after the shock loss of his long-serving assistant at Coventry Blaze, Dayle Keen.
One campaign together and Panthers and Stewart are smiling again, knowing who they lost would be so proud of them and the respective journeys they’ve taken to get here.
The game really was quite something and while it fell a whole one minute and 53 seconds shy from the equally-epic 2017 final between Cardiff Devils and Sheffield Steelers - Steelers winning 7-6 that day - it wasn’t any less dramatic.
Panthers had to fight and scrap from two goals down on Saturday in their semi final against the Steelers, with captain Sam Herr scoring the winner in overtime to set up Sunday’s grand finale with the Devils.
In his last game before retirement, it was fitting that Herr made his impact felt in this one too, with the opening goal inside the first couple of minutes.
A scrappy play on 25 minutes allowed Nottingham’s skipper to take advantage again and the home side had doubled the lead. Mitch Fossier added a third, burying his own rebound and the Panthers fans were in dreamland.
Cardiff’s Tyler Busch was ejected from the game for fighting, although it was a one-sided affair as Matt Alfaro didn’t look like a willing participant.
Just before the end of the second, Kohen Olichefsky stuffed the puck past Jason Grande to give Cardiff a lifeline in this game and a pivotal moment in the contest.
Devils were shortened again as Evan Mosey also saw his night end early for misconduct, but it didn’t stop Pete Russell’s men from clawing their way back.
Joey Martin sent the puck into the roof of the net with 10 to go and the tension in a noisy Motorpoint Arena was more and more palpable, with Gleason Fournier’s goal with four minutes remaining consigning the game to overtime.
A minute after the restart, Panthers had scored. Game over. Equipment strewn all over the ice, the Nottingham players in celebration. All good, right?
Devils coach Pete Russell initiated a coach’s challenge to review the incident, feeling his netminder Ben Bowns had been impeded. A delay occurred. Would the play-off final be decided on a video review?
Eventually, referees Joe Sewell and Andy Dalton re-appeared. The verdict? No goal. Russell’s challenge had been successful while the watching crowd chuckled in amusement as the Panthers had to pick up their sticks and gloves to get the game going again.
Ten minutes later, Jarrod Gourley had scored. The Devils fans and players were euphoric. That was it now, wasn't it? Russell walked across the ice to greet his players and was stopped in his tracks by the news that his counterpart, Stewart, had decided to use his right to video review.
Here we were again with the referees huddled round a screen off ice behind the announcers area and penalty boxes with the fate of the 2025 play-off final coming down to another video review.
Once again, the fans were on tenterhooks as they awaited Messrs Sewell and Dalton and whether this exciting contest was about to come to an end.
Like the Panthers, Cardiff had abandoned their equipment with gay abandon. When the referees returned, they had to go and get their stuff as well. You just couldn’t make it up.
The fans in the building were stunned as this turn of events and with both goalies not giving anything up, it was starting to become a long day.
As awareness kicks in on the length of this article being as long as the game we just witnessed, we’ll fast forward to the winning goal and it came from Fossier, standing out in front and stabbing in Zsombor Garat’s short pass and Nottingham’s fans were finally able to celebrate.
You can’t not acknowledge the contribution of the Devils, who swept Belfast Giants aside in Saturday’s semi-final and while they return to Wales with that feeling of what might have been, it’s a case of dusting themselves off and improving for next season.
For Panthers, it was a just reward for in their season of recovery. The scars just that little more bearable as they showed off the cup to the waiting fans from the balcony at the Motorpoint Arena.
Their first play-off title in nine years, Stewart’s first as a head coach, Herr skates off into the sunset with a winner’s medal round his neck. It really was the perfect ending for the Panthers.
👏 GIANTS EDGE PLAY-OFF SUNDAY’S “OTHER GAME”
There’s not a lot of love for the third place game in the play-off weekend schedule as Saturday’s losing semi-finalists scrap for that last little morale booster before going on their holidays.
On this occasion, it was league champions Belfast Giants who ended the season on a happy note as they defeated Sheffield Steelers 8-7, often dubbed as a contest to find out which of the players are least hungover from any alcohol-related activities the night before.
The fans from both teams made this particular a more atmospheric one than previous years, but it won’t count for anything. The scorers and goalie stats aren’t even added to their final tallies.
So, we’ll just say, well done, Giants and move along.
📆 PLAY-OFF WEEKEND FIXTURES & RESULTS
SATURDAY (All games to be played at Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham)
Semi Finals
Belfast Giants 0 Cardiff Devils 5
Sheffield Steelers 3 Nottingham Panthers 4 (After Overtime)
SUNDAY
Third Place Play Off
Belfast Giants 8 Sheffield Steelers 7
Final
Nottingham Panthers 4 Cardiff Devils 3 (Double OT)
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We’ll be back on Wednesday at 7am once the weekend fog clears as attention starts to look towards Great Britain in the World Championships.
Catch you on Wednesday!