With great netminding at both ends, an offensively challenged head to head at Nottingham Panthers went the way of the Flames when Matt Tugnutt bagged the decider for a 2-1 win on the road.
At 14 minutes Hugo Roy set Panthers in front. A little over 2 minutes after that Ryan Hughes squared it and the teams closed the period knotted on a goal each and, in fact, that was the close of the regulation scoring for the remainder of regulation thanks to 30 Eamon McAdam saves and 24 more by Rok Stojanovic in the Panthers net.
Tugnutt’s winner came at 61:58.
“I thought we showed some good resilience as the game went on tonight to hold them at a goal,” said Paul Dixon.
“We were the better team in the opening period, but they replied very well in the 2nd where they definitely had more of the play and opportunities than we did and we could have easily gone to break trailing.”
“It was a bit more back and forth after that and both sides got great goaltending ahead of coin flip time when you are in a 3 on 3 extra period.”
“We really struggled last time we were here and Rok stood on his head to shut us right out back then so we are thrilled to come out of here with the win.”
