The big bad Nottingham Panthers where the latest visitors to the Odyssey arena with the game expected to be a tight affair with lots of physical play and the fans where not disappointed, though the score sheet is a different story.

Nottingham where sporting their latest signing, NHL lock-out star Steve McKenna and the man mountain didn’t disappoint the travelling supporters as he combined for a goal and assist to lead the Panthers to a 4-2 victory. He assisted on the only goal of the first period by Marek Ivan who went on to take the man of the match award.

The second period was split but not before Nottingham made it 2-0 after a terrible mistake by Fredrik Nasval in the Nottingham end let McKenna through on a break away and he took it superbly roofing the puck over Klempa’s left shoulder. Shane Johnson pulled one back with the assist going to Tony Hand who to the shock of many fans managed to pick up the man of the match award.

The second period ended seven seconds early with both teams sent to the dressing room to cool off after an ugly incident with seconds to go. Nottingham’s Welsh forward Matt Myers who had his stick up all night delivered a terrible high stick to the face of Todd Kelman sending him to the ice bloodied and concussed. Todd tried to get up to skate to the bench but fell over and had to be helped to the bench by team-mates as a brawl looked immanent.

Myers was thrown out of the game and on his way to the tunnel, Giants hard-man Mel Angelstad tried to get at him to have a few words with Nottingham tough guy Steve McKenna getting in the way. All the players where in the dressing room and it looked like things might kick off but Giants coach Tony Hand came in to pull Angelstad away and leave any retribution that might be dished out to Myers to another day.

Their was a game to win in the third period and the Giants came out flying trying to get the game back even with star defenseman Todd Kelman now out for what could be a considerable amount of time. They tied the game five minutes into the period when top scorer Fred Nasval finally got lose from the man marking he was receiving from Nottingham to fire the puck home from between the circles to record his 13th goal of the season.

It wasn’t to be however as Nottingham kept up their pressure also and stole a goal with four minutes to go when Marek Ivan score his second of the game and what also proved to be the game winner. An empty net goal by the very quiet John Craighead rubbed salt into the Belfast wounds as they went down 4-2 in the end.

The return game between the two teams is in the Odyssey on December 30th and should prove to be a very interesting night indeed!

Belfast Giants 2-4 Nottingham Panthers

Giants: Johnson 34:23, Nasval 44:53.
Panthers: Ivan 12:09, McKenna 32:01, Ivan 56:04, Craighead (en) 59:56.
(Odyssey Arena, Belfast)

Lines:
Huppe – Hand – Nasval
Johnson – C.Bowen – Awada
Morrison – Kelly – Levers

J.Bowen – Kelman
Angelstad – Gavalier
Walton