Nottingham Panthers scored a pair of goals in the opening frame to take a lead they would never give up, eventually stinging the Flames for a 6-1 defeat of Surrey’s visitors.
Anthony Luciani at 3:33 and Didrik Henbrant a little under 10 minutes later had Panthers enjoying a 2-0 lead at the break.
The home side added another through Luciani at 21:39 to make it a 3 goal spread.
In the 3rd, Otto Nieminen widened the gap to 4 shortly after restart. Lewis Hook finally got one back when he opened the Flames account in the 48th minute, but a Hugo Roy strike and Nieminen’s 2nd of the contest capped off the Panthers night.
Taz Burman made 21 saves on 27 shots while Rok Stojanovic was 29 for 30.
“That is a score that you want to forget as soon as possible,” said Paul Dixon.
“We didn’t put in the kind of game that we need to and we were the 2nd best team in every area of the game and in every spot on the ice.”
“We have been a lot better lately, so it was a little surprising to play the way we did, but we are going to have to put it behind us and quickly set up again for Sunday at Manchester. We are going to have to be better than this and I am sure every guy is fully aware of that.”
