Nottingham Panthers 4, Basingstoke Bison 1

NOTTINGHAM Panthers took first blood in their weekend double header with the Basingstoke Bison as three goals in the first six minutes won the contest at the National Ice Centre.

The visitors were again without the injured Lewis Buckman, but giant Canadian Jeff Ewasko was back in the line-up, having recovered from a neck injury which kept him out of the game at Newcastle last Sunday.

The Panthers got off to a dream start on Saturday night when they opened the scoring after 38 seconds.

Matt Myers won a face-off in the Bison end zone and John Craighead fired into the top corner.

After Doug Sheppard and Owen Walter went close for the visitors, the Panthers made it 2-0 as their recent signing from the National Hockey League, Steve McKenna, assisted Konstantin Kalmikov at 4:19.

Soon after, the home side added a third as David Clarke and Mark Cadotte combined for young Brit Richard Wojciak to score his first-ever goal for the Panthers.

The Bison gave themselves a lifeline at 9:01 when captain Shawn Maltby netted low down past former Basingstoke hero Curtis Cruickshank.

The second period started with man-of-the-match Maltby being denied early on by the Panthers goalie.

Ronnie Vogel then did well to save from Clarke and Cadotte in one-on-ones.

At 27:12, the home side added a fourth goal when Jan Krulis finished a move involving man-of-the-match Wojciak and Craighead.

Five minutes later, Nottingham, who lost defenceman Jan Magdosko to injury in the first session, had another player sidelined. Marek Ivan was dismissed on a five plus game for roughing after clashing with Duncan Dalmao, who received a two-minute roughing penalty.

The final session saw no further goals and few chances for either side and Nottingham ran out 4-1 winners.

Bison head coach and general manager Mark Bernard said: "Once again, the first 10 minutes of the game has cost us as they were ready to play and we were not.

"Too many guys did not get involved in the game.

Even if they are not scoring, I expect them to be checking guys and that wasn't happening."

Scoring, Panthers: Craighead, Wojciak 1+1, Kalmikov, Krulis 1+0, Myers, McKenna, Cadotte, Clarke 0+1; Bison: Maltby 1+0, Sheppard 0+1.

Shots on goal: Cruickshank 21, Vogel 34. Penalties:

Panthers 28min, Bison 16.