GAME REPORT: Clan move to top of the EIHL with away win in Nottingham

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Nottingham Panthers 2 Glasgow Clan 4

Two goals in the last five minutes secured Glasgow Clan a third straight win on the road to make it three victories out of four in the Elite League against Nottingham Panthers.

Clan began their final weekend on the road looking to build on the success of a four-point weekend last week and they did so as they saw off Tim Wallace’s Panthers team in a hard-fought affair.

There were chances in the early stages as Linden Springer and Mathieu Roy gave Panthers goalie Kevin Carr some food for thought.

It was the visitors who took the lead shorthanded inside the first four minutes when Rasmus Bjerrum kept up his record of scoring with a long-range shot and the fans were jubilant.

Clan’s good start continued as Roy hit one over the bar, with Mikael Lidhammar doing something similar minutes later.

The home side did find their way on to the goal list with four to go in the first period when a scramble in front of the crease was finished off by Brett Perlini to tie the game up.

A fight between Springer and Guillaume Lepine broke out in the final minute as the volume rose in the Motorpoint Arena, but the score remained deadlocked after the first 20 minutes.

The middle period was barely a minute old when Clan went behind, with Ollie Betteridge finished off a chance shorthanded, with Lepine still in the box.

This seemed to spur the Panthers on as they looked for a third goal, but Patrick Killeen and his defensive lines rode it out to keep Glasgow in it.

The game began the swing again as Nottingham failed to find a way through and Carr was back to being under the cosh and by the end of the period, Clan were level again.

A howitzer of a shot from Matt Pufahl flew into the net after he was set up by Craig Moore and you felt the contest was ongoing into the third.

Both sides enjoyed spells of pressure after the restart and it wasn’t until the final minutes of the game where Clan found their legs and started to stretch away to the points.

Nolan LaPorte broke as Glasgow bore down on the Panthers net, with the #37 setting up Chad Rau to send home a delicious finish and the visitors retook the lead.

Roy added the fourth for the insurance with a couple of minutes to go as Fitzgerald enjoyed the fruits of another victory from his team, who delivered a hard-working performance.

Something he’ll demand again when both teams meet again on Sunday.

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