Nottingham Panthers 2, Cardiff Devils 1
Cardiff Devils crashed to defeat in a hard-fought Elite League ice hockey clash at Nottingham Panthers.
The match was marred by an injury to Evan Mosey, who was hit by a heavy blow to the head in an incident which did not draw a penalty.
Sean Bentivoglio described the incident as ‘disgraceful’ on twitter, while Devils owner Steve King tweeted: “Two things. We will get Evan the best help there is.
“Secondly, we need to keep training players and officials on player safety. This can’t keep happening.”
Canadian Luke Pither fired the winning goal with seven minutes 24 seconds to play, ending Devils run of 10 successive victories.
League leaders Devils stay in the English midlands and head north on Sunday for their away fixture against Fife Flyers in Kirkcaldy.
Cardiff have now completed their League series against Panthers with each team earning three wins and suffering three defeats, all by the odd goal.
Joey Haddad was again missing from the Devils line-up, but Mike Hedden returned to action.
The defeat plus Belfast Giants’ back-to-back home wins against Fife Flyers, 6-3 on Friday and 2-1, means Cardiff’s lead at the top is now down to seven points.
Giants play a third fixture in three days on Sunday when they take on MK Lightning away, while Devils travel to Scotland.
The first period in Cardiff’s match at Nottingham was goalless before Panthers drew first blood with Jon Rheault making it 1-0 at 25 minutes 10 second.
Sean Bentivoglio levelled just over a minute later, firing home from a Matt Pope pass (26-12).
Slow motion… it’s a hit to the head whether intentional or not. Knocked him out cold. pic.twitter.com/0wweaB8hAc
— Pirates Fans (@jellyfish_fans) January 26, 2019
It was still 1-1 going into the third before a big hit by Nottingham’s Jaynen Rissling on Mosey caught the Devil by surprise and knocked him out of the game. It looked a check to the head which should have resulted in a penalty and left Mosey on the ice, apparently out cold.
Devils were expecting a call from the referee, but nothing was given and before the puck was dropped to restart the game, Layne Ulmer went after Rissling and dropped his gloves.
A number of players on both teams were drawn into the altercation.
It was a big team reaction by Ulmer, who was thrown out on a game misconduct and sat for an extra two minutes for instigating the fight. Devils managed to kill off the Panthers powerplay.
At 52-36 Pither broke the deadlock with a rocket past goalie Ben Bowns to put Nottingham up 2-1 with 7-24 to play in front of more than 7,000 spectators.
Despite heavy pressure, the Devils could not tie the game, and with under a minute to play Michael Garnett made an incredible stick save from a pointblank Bryce Reddick shot to keep his team in the lead and eventually seal the win.
Match stats:
Scorers, Panthers: Jon Rheault 1+0, Luke Pither 1+0, Alex Guptill 0+1, Josh Tetlow 0+1,
Devils: Sean Bentivoglio 1+0, Matt Pope 0+1, Gleason Fournier 0+1.
Period scores (Panthers first): 0-0; 1-1 (1-1); 1-0 (2-1).
Shots on goal: Panthers (on Bowns) 15+10+6=31; Devils (on Garnett) 9+19+9=37.
Penalties in minutes: Panthers 0+2+41=43; Devils 0+2+33=35.
Special teams: Panthers PK 5/5, PP 0/1; Devils PK 1/1, PP 0/5.
Men of the match: Panthers, Michael Garnett; Devils, Joey Martin.
Referees: Tom Darnell and Blake Copeland.
Attendance: 7,020.
Elite League results on Friday/Saturday: Belfast Giants 6, Fife Flyers 3; Guildford Flames 4, Coventry Blaze 3; Belfast Giants 2, Fife Flyers 1; Dundee Stars 3, Manchester Storm 1; Nottingham Panthers 2, Cardiff Devils 1; Sheffield Steelers 0, Glasgow Clan 6; Belfast Giants 6, Fife Flyers 3.
Devils’ match at Nottingham was the first of three successive away games. They play Fife Flyers on Sunday and Manchester Storm next weekend.
Their next home tests at the Viola Arena are against Sheffield Steelers on Sunday, February 3 (6pm) and Coventry Blaze (Saturday, February 9).
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