Nottingham Panthers booked their place at playoff finals weekend with 6-3 victory over Guildford and an 8-6 aggregate success.
Mitch Fossier scored a hat-trick on a famous Motorpoint Arena night in-front of a 13th capacity crowd of the season.
Panthers were without forward Reid Stefanson because of injury. Jason Grande started between the pipes with Luca Sheldon as back-up.
Two early goals put Panthers ahead on aggregate
Panthers made the perfect start by scoring twice inside the opening four minutes, started by Davis Bunz firing home a beauty from the right-circle (01:43).
Cooper Zech fed Mitch Fossier on the right-wing to make it 2-0 on night with a sweet powerplay goal (03:36).
At the other end, Grande made a string of good saves including one to deny former Panther Brett Welychka from close-range.
Four goals in frantic second period
The visitors regained their aggregate lead with two powerplay goals in three-and-a-half minutes, as Ethan Strang scored from the right-circle (27:35) and Brett Welychka netted from close-range (31:01).
Panthers hit back with two goals in 44 seconds as the roof was lifted off the Motorpoint Arena.
Hugo Roy put away his own rebound after Panthers broke clear three-on-two (36:07) and Fossier went top-shelf from the right-circle for his second of the night (36:51).
We’re going to Finals Weekend!
Grande made a superb save to deny Daniel Catenacci and at the other end, Kristoff Kontos, Ollie Betteridge and Sam Herr went close in quick succession.
Fossier completed his treble with a sweetly-taken penalty-shot (46:48), but Guildford netted their third powerplay goal of the night through Brett Ferguson’s tip (48:56).
Panthers booked their place in the final four as Matt Spencer scored from his own zone into an empty net with Eamon McAdam lifted for the extra skater (59:45).
