EIHL: High-flying Nottingham Panthers beat Coventry Blaze 7-2

In-form Nottingham Panthers picked up their fourth win on the bounce with a comfortable 7-2 success over Coventry Blaze in the Elite League.

The win saw the Panthers go level on points with second-placed Sheffield while Blaze are getting dragged in to a fight for the last play-off spots, with ninth-placed Fife only four points behind with a game in hand.
Petr Kalus opened the scoring for the hosts at 13.28 but the league's top sniper Ryan Ginand levelled for Blaze at 18.50.
Panthers then took the initiative in the second period with Matt Francis scoring only 1.27 in and Lynn Loyns adding a third 15 seconds later. Kalus scored his second at 33.34 to see his side 4-1 ahead but Ginand also notched his second of the night to keep Blaze in the game.
However, the hosts were in no mood to let their opponents get back into the game as they hit three goals in the third period without reply.
Leigh Salters scored on the powerplay and they followed-up with goals from Robert Lachowicz and David Clarke before Matt Ryan missed a penalty shot in the 50th minute as he failed to make the win even more emphatic.