Panthers romp to weekend double

Nottingham Panthers romped past Hull Stingrays on Sunday to net back-to-back weekend wins and tighten their grip on second spot in the Elite League.

Panthers beat Edinburgh on Saturday with Brendan Cook (2), Jade Galbraith (2) and Johan Molin on target.

And coach Corey Neilson was thrilled with Sunday's ruthless away victory - thanks to goals from Galbraith, Molin, Dan Tessier, Cook and Matt Myers.

"That was as convincing a performance as we have put on this year," he said.

The weekend action saw Panthers (62 points) move two points clear of Coventry Blaze but Blaze have two games in hand and third-placed Belfast (60) also have a game in hand.

We could have had 10 or 12 goals against Hull

Corey Neilson

Sunday's win on the road was largely down to a superb second-period surge.

Galbraith's first-period strike - his 16th of the season - was cancelled out by Jason Kostadine but Panthers responded in fine style in the middle session.

A powerplay counter by Molin put the visitors back in front 47 seconds in and the special team showed their class to make it 3-1 on another powerplay when Tessier fired home.

Cook found the target to all but end the game and in the final period Myers rounded off the scoring with another powerplay goal.

"We could have had 10 or 12 goals," Neilson told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"We tried a whole bunch of different things knowing they would play a defensive system and try to contain us, and the things we tried worked really well."

On Saturday Panthers once again made the most of their powerplay expertise with a disciplined display against Edinburgh Capitals at the National Ice Centre.

Nottingham almost went through the whole game penalty-free - only picking up a single minor penalty with 17 seconds remaining.

But the visitors were not so controlled and conceded four goals on the powerplay.

Cook opened the home scoring and two powerplay strikes from Galbraith made it 3-0.

Capitals player-coach Doug Christiansen gave the visitors hope but Nottingham killed the game off with two more powerplay goals.

A five-on-three advantage saw Molin add a fourth and Cook's second of the game took the score to 5-1.

Mark Hurtubise gave the scoreline a little bit more respectability when he fired home Edinburgh's second goal of the game late on but Panthers were never in danger of being pegged back.

Nottingham face a crucial double on Friday and Saturday with away games against Belfast and leaders Sheffield.