Nottingham Panthers 7 Cardiff Devils 4

Cardiff Devils charge to the Elite League title was halted as they crashed to defeat at Nottingham Panthers.

The Devils saw a seven match unbeaten run stretching back to February 1st ended despite a perfect start.

Guillaume Doucet gave the Devils a sixth minute lead with a goal against his former club.

But Alex Nikiforuk levelled before a fortunate interception allowed the Canadian forward to find Matt Carter who put the home side ahead in the first period.

The Panthers saw out a penalty at the start of the second period before hitting the Elite League leaders with another quickfire double goal burst.

Brian McGrattan beat Ben Bowns from long range before Carter returned the favour as he set-up Nikiforuk for his second goal of the night.

The Devils called a time out and pulled netminder Ben Bowns sending on Tom Murdy who was soon beaten as Chris Lawrence made it 5-1 on a powerplay.

Patrick Asselin finally replied for Andrew Lord’s side as he netted, with an assist from Scott Hotham, before the end of the second period.

Devils dominated much of the final period but found it difficult to find a way past Swedish stopper Miiki Wiikman in the Panthers net.

Murdy was then pulled to give Cardiff an extra man.

And with just over four minutes left Asselin bagged his second of the night with assists from Joey Haddad and Andrew Hotham.

Stephen Schultz fired into an empty net to put Panthers 6-3 up but Matt Myers quickly struck back for the Devils with an assist from Andrew Hotham.

But any hopes of another remarkable comeback were dashed when Robert Farmer found the empty net with just over two minutes left.

It ended a run of three straight wins against the Panthers.

Lord’s side still lead the standings by seven points from Belfast Giants, but Sheffield Steelers can move into second – six points adrift – if they beat Edinburgh Capitals on Wednesday night.

Devils next game is at home to Coventry Blaze on Saturday night.