Meyers confident after fine start

Meyers was made captain by coach Corey Neilson in 2008

Nottingham captain Danny Meyers has said the Panthers "don't fear anyone" after a victorious opening weekend.

Panthers beat Belfast 4-1 in the Elite League on Saturday and followed that up with a 5-3 win at Coventry in the Challenge Cup on Sunday night.

Meyers told BBC Radio Nottingham: "We don't fear anyone. We know we can come to rinks like this [Coventry] and put in a performance.

"There's no intimidation factor. We've got a spine in the team this year."

On Saturday night at the National Ice Centre, Panthers were in impressive form as they eased past Belfast.

Man-of-the-match Ross Dalgleish set the home side on their way with a goal inside two minutes before fellow debutant Cameron Mann doubled the lead on the powerplay.

Sean McAslan made it 3-0 before Colin Shields got Giants on the board to leave the scores at 3-1 going into the final period.

But Mann grabbed his second goal of the night early in the third to effectively kill off any lingering hopes the Giants had.

Panthers were then forced to win the hard way against Coventry on Sunday.

The home side got off to the perfect start, opening the scoring inside the first minute with a goal from Joe Henry.

And they doubled their lead within three minutes thanks to a strike from Greg Chambers.

The Panthers were looking ragged, but two goals in just over a minute restored parity. Bruce Richardson got them on the board in the 18th minute and Jade Galbraith hit the leveller.

Chances continued to come at both ends but player-coach Corey Neilson put his team in front for the first time as he struck home just 35 seconds from the end of the second period.

The visitors increased their lead late in the final period through McAslan, and although the hosts pulled one back with an Adam Calder effort, Galbraith knocked his second goal of the game into an empty net to seal the win.

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