Fife Flyers gain a point in shoot-out defeat at Nottingham Panthers

Fife Flyers bounced back from Saturday's home defeat to Sheffield Steelers by claiming a point in a penalty shots defeat at Nottingham Panthers last night.

Flyers twice took the lead at the National Ice Arena, but Panthers fought back on each occasion to force a 2-2 draw in regulation time, before claiming the win in the shoot-out after a goalless overtime period.

With no goals in the opening period, it took only 1.56 of the second to break the deadlock – Danick Gauthier drawing first blood for Fife on the powerplay, waltzing through the heart of the Panthers defence before beating Mike Garnett at the second attempt.

That lead was held for almost 12 minutes before the Panthers equalised through Alex Guptill, who pounced on a slip from Rick Pinkston before lifting the puck beyond Shane Owen.

Joe Basaraba put the Flyers back ahead at 49:02 with his side’s second powerplay goal of the night, capitalising on a five-on-three advantage after Panthers had been called for icing too many men.

But again Flyers couldn’t hold onto their lead and Panthers again levelled the scores with six minutes left as Alexandre Bolduc lit the lamp to make it two each, touching the puck over the line after a shot had squirmed through the body of Owen.

No further scoring meant each side took a point as the game went to overtime, and then eventually a shootout to find a winner.

Panthers took the extra point as Mike Garnett denied all four Flyers’ shots, taken by Mike Cazzola, Paul Crowder, Brett Bulmer and Marcus Basara, while Luke Pither and new-signing Marek Tvrdon were on target to give the Panthers the win.