"Panthers had to fight off a spell of six men on four, but stood firm at 3-1 to take an historic CHL win – the first time any UK team had done so."
Illustration: Adam Poole
After all the expectation of summer, Panthers have opened their season with what could at best be described as yo-yo form. Of 15 games played so far, including all the pre-season fixtures, they have won only five. A 33 percent win rate is not very impressive, yet among those victories was one against a top-level German team in the European Champions Hockey League (CHL), an historic, against-the-odds win for a British side. This was against a team with 60 times more top-flight experience – Hamburg having 1303 NHL games worth of experience on their team against just 21 for Panthers – so not to be sniffed at. Panthers also won a pre-season tournament in the Napoleon Cup in France.
Panthers’ first home games at the National Ice Centre were in the Champions Hockey League versus teams from Finland and Sweden. Steady resistance was put up against Finnish side Lukko, with the score kept at 2-2 going into the final period. However, Lukko then took charge and finished up winning 4-2.
It was a different story only two days later against the Swedish team, Lulea, who skated to a resounding 10-1 win over Panthers. Lulea were impressive to watch, their speed, passing and team consistency outstanding. Panthers were clearly outplayed, but they were also out of luck in the game, with three goals going in off Nottingham players and two players, Chris Higgins and Martin Podlesak, picking up injuries in the game, reducing the lines to three, against the opposition’s four – not helpful when Lulea’s fourth line could out-run Nottingham’s first line. Lulea scored six goals in the second period alone, pretty much ending any hope of the game being close. Martin Raitums took over in net, but he was only on the ice for 27 seconds when Lulea scored again. The home crowd of over 4,000 continued their vocal support of Panthers despite the score line and Panthers gave it their all until the very end. This was the first time that Nottingham conceded double figures in a home game in 22 years, when they lost 11-7 to the Bracknell Bees in November 1992.
Nathan Robinson. Photo: Emma Sleight
The return fixtures told a similar story, unfortunately, and in early September Panthers lost in Finland 6-2 after a long trip across Europe. Nottingham’s finest fought hard, but the power of the opponents was eventually too much. And it was the same again in Sweden, Lulea getting the scoreline to 9-1 this time, scoring four goals in the first period and seven by the end of the second.
Panthers played the Hamburg Freezers, the third team in their CHL group, at home later in the month. Expectations may not have been high after the previous games, but we managed to pull out the best performance of our season to date. Once again, we went into the game as underdogs, with Hamburg ranked 8th in the tournament, against Panthers’ 44th (and bottom) seeding. Furthermore, Hamburg won the German DEL league last season – to put it into context, Germany are ranked 13th in the world, UK 22nd – and have played in the CHL since 2002 (this is Panthers’ first year), while their starting net-minder, Sebastian Caron, was formerly on the roster of premier NHL team Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Freezers are renowned for entertaining an average home crowd of about 8,500 with exciting hockey and a spectacular pre-game show. About 60 or so made the trip to the NIC and they were determined to have a great time, stoking up the atmosphere in an initially quiet arena with their never-ending infectious support for their team.
Kowalski. Photo: Emma Sleight
The home team came out calm yet focussed and Cody Wild opened the scoring with a slapshot on goal in the ninth minute. Panthers fans happily celebrated the lead for the first ever time in the CHL, but Hamburg equalised shortly afterwards. Nathan Robinson then scored a power-play goal to take it to 2-1 in the second period before net-minder Craig Kowalski earned his nickname of “Killer” when he made an amazing four saves in five seconds in the third period.
Duly inspired, Robert Lachowicz pulled out the CHL “goal of the day” from his pocket. He was passed the puck with his back to the goal and did a smart spin-a-rama 180-degree move to make an incredible goal one-on-one against the Freezers keeper. The NIC was on its feet for virtually the remainder of the game and the volume levels, at last, were rousing. Panthers had to fight off a spell of six men on four, but stood firm at 3-1 to take an historic CHL win – the first time any UK team had done so.
With just one game left in the CHL – the return visit to Hamburg, on 7 October – Panthers cannot progress, but have gained valuable experience and shown they have the guts to stand up and compete against the cream of European hockey.
Another short tournament Panthers have been involved in was the Napoleon Cup, held in Amiens on the final three days of August. The Panthers won their first match on a penalty shoot-out, with Dan Green in nets against Amiens, the host team. Game Two saw Panthers beat France’s top side Rouen to set up a deciding third match on Sunday against Three Rivers University from Canada. Panthers needed a point in regulation time to win the trophy. It took ten goals and Brandon Benedict scoring in an empty-net (5-4), when the Canadians had pulled their net-minder to have six players versus three. Panthers were not in front for long as a game-tying goal was scored in the last few seconds from the opposition to take the game into overtime. TRU won the penalty shoot-out but the point from drawing in regulation was enough to give Panthers the silverware, to the delight of the 150 travelling fans.
Evan Mosey. Photo: Emma Sleight
As for the player roster, departures and injuries have been the story of September. Short-term signings who joined for the CHL have already started to leave. Martins Raitums, Martin Podlesak and Colby Cohen have gone. Mark Lee hasn’t iced due to injury, David Clarke is still out recovering from shoulder surgery but hopes to return soon, and Chris Higgins is also still injured. Robert Farmer has a broken bone in his foot and is out for six weeks; Mike Berube was injured on September 27 in the first period against Hull; and, on September 28 in Cardiff, Robert Lachowicz took a puck to the ankle, while Evan Mosey took a hard check which resulted in injury and Brandon Benedict was taken to hospital with a possible concussion. The QMC are rumoured to be opening a new ward for ice hockey injuries.
Amidst all this, Panthers opened their league campaign against Cardiff on September 13, a game counting toward Challenge Cup points too. They came out strong and won 3-1. They followed on with their worst league game in a long time against Hull at home – and just four days after the against-the-odds win over Hamburg. Hull had lost their long-time coach, their top scorer and 4 out of 5 of their games so far this season, yet still managed to beat Panthers 6-1.
Panthers themselves dubbed it “a night to forget” and suggested Hull came to Nottingham with a plan to defend hard and use the breakaway to score – which worked six times. Craig Kowalski either had an off night, or took objection to being taken off, but stormed off, slamming his stick on his departure. It seemed like nearly every player on the team had an off night, in fact, and the crowd’s frustration at the unusually lacklustre performance led to a chorus of boos as the team left the ice. Nathan Robinson picked up Man of the Match, but could not seem to get off the ice quick enough, leaving through the Hull door, rather than the Panthers exit.
Panthers played the Sheffield Steelers in their Challenge Cup opener, a tight looking score line of 2-1 not reflecting our dominance (we had 10 power plays, but did not manage to score on any). The following night saw a trip to Coventry and a 4-3 defeat, having pulled back from 4-1. It was a similar story in Cardiff, too, Panthers ending up on the wrong end of a 5-2 scoreline. There seemed to be more commitment from the team, however, particularly the likes of Greg Jacina and Steve Lee. Nathan Robinson was ejected from the game early on after a high stick penalty; Lachowicz and Benedict were injured, leaving only 11 skaters on a short-staffed bench. Oddly, Panthers seemed to play better with fewer players, but they could not do enough on Cardiff’s small ice pad, and with limited players on the bench, so came up short.
Coming up, Panthers have more of the same: back-to-back cup games on Friday and Saturday, followed by a trip to Hamburg for the CHL, then a return to league action. They need to find their consistency and form to be in with a chance of competing with teams that are genuine contenders for the league. Fortunately, other teams are also showing signs of inconsistency. Still, it’s early days. Teams need to be in it for the long game, but you cannot leave it too late...
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