Flames jumped on the visiting Nottingham Panthers early with a 3 goal lead before the 1st period was out and didn’t look back the rest of the way during a 4-1 home win.
About 7 minutes in, and shortly after stepping out of the penalty box, Ryan Tait opened the Flames scoring and just after a Flames powerplay expired Matt Alvaro doubled the lead near the period’s halfway point. Just 21 seconds from period time, Lewis Hook ensured they would hold a 3 goal advantage to start the middle set.
A 25th minute Brett Ferguson strike put Spectrum’s men 4 goals to the good. Logan Neilson got that one back at 31:18 to put Panthers 3 goals off the pace through 40 minutes, but a scoreless 3rd period retained the existing line as the final tally.
Taz Burman turned away 25 of 26 shots against Rok Stojanovic who turned away 25 of 29.
“The one thing we were able to achieve this time that we so often have not this season is extending an early lead,” said Paul Dixon.
“The dreaded 2 goal lead for us has far too many times folded up at some point but tonight the key was we were able to add on to it to really make it much more of an uphill battle for Nottingham for most of the night.”
“We played a solid game and when you do that with timely scoring and a good game from Taz at the back you will more often than not get a result.”
“We have Panthers again on Wednesday and they will be ready to reply so we will need to be just as ready to put in our best game to give us a chance for a road win.”
