Panthers book Steelers date

Panthers celebrate Bergin strike: Picture from Mark Fuller

Nottingham Panthers will play Sheffield Steelers in the Elite League Play-Off final after cruising to a 6-2 victory over Coventry Blaze in the second semi-final at the Ice Arena.

With the extra incentive of meeting fierce East Midlands rivals Steelers in Sunday's final, Panthers put on an inspired performance in front of their home fans to put out Blaze.

Paul Thompson's men were made to pay for a lacklustre start to the match as they quickly found themselves 3-0 behind with less than 14 minutes on the clock.

Bruce Richardson started the scoring at 8.19 when he latched onto a pinpoint cross from Jade Galbraith and calmly slotted past J F Perras in the Blaze goal.

The Coventry netminder was forced to pick the puck out of the goal again when Galbraith again supplied the pass and this time Brendon Cook was on hand to fire home.

Sucker punch

And when Corey Nielsen unleashed a rocket at 13.51 to extend Panthers' lead to three, Thompson was forced to call a first period time out.

His team-talk seemed to do the trick and Blaze pulled a goal back in the dying stages of the opening twenty when Danny Stewart fired past Michel Robinson at 19.38.

Blaze came out fighting at the start of the second period, but Panthers delivered a real sucker punch at 27.53 when David Clarke pounced on the loose puck to put Nottingham 4-1 ahead.

Blaze completely lost their discipline after the fourth goal, and when Carlyle Lewis was called for roughing shortly after, Richardson prodded home his second goal of the evening at 29.21 to put Panthers in total command.

Barrie Moore cut the deficit to three goals at 30.39 and despite Blaze dominating the remainder of the second period, Robinson stood firm in the Panthers net to keep his side 5-2 ahead at the second interval.

Blaze had no option but to throw caution to the wind in the final period, however Kevin Bergin killed off any slight hopes of a final period comeback by blasting past Perras to complete the scoring at 44.20.