Nottingham Panthers beat Fife Flyers 3-2 at the Motorpoint Arena, holding on after Fife came back from two goals down to level the game. Spencer Naas opened the scoring at 5:52, and Chase Pearson made it 2-0 less than two minutes later by putting away a rebound after Jordan McLaughlin stopped Tim Doherty on a breakaway.
Fife responded in the second period. Joey Pierce finished a move set up by Xander Lamppa at 29:41, then Evan Dougherty scored shorthanded at 32:12 to tie the game. Nottingham restored its lead less than two minutes later, with Miika Pitkänen scoring on the powerplay at 33:30. That proved to be the decisive goal, as the Flyers could not beat Mat Robson again.
Nottingham’s Jordan Kelsall said the early goals helped put his team in a position to win, while acknowledging that Fife had taken over for a spell. Pierce said the Flyers felt they had played well in the second period, but identified Nottingham’s powerplay goal as the difference.