A TOTALLY commanding five-goal first period performance paved the way for Nottingham Panthers' emphatic 8-0 victory over Braehead Clan at the National Ice Centre.
Their first shut-out of the season was a long time coming but it virtually seals Panthers place in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, with the second leg still to come.
And as the game doubled up as a league fixture, it was a relief for coach Corey Neilson that the side bounced back immediately from the previous night's 4-2 defeat in Cardiff, when they threw away a two-goal lead amid a series of penalties.
Should they not suffer a total collapse against Braehead in the return leg on January 8 in Scotland, six-time cup winners Panthers will find either Dundee or Sheffield standing in their way in the last four.
But for now, Neilson can consider it a job well done after he'd once again changed systems and forward lines in a bid to find a consistent spark.
Given how Panthers ran Clan's depleted defence ragged, Neilson's changes seemed to have worked.
Despite the dominance of their performance, one of the talking points afterwards was whether Clan had in fact scored to wreck goalie Neil Conway's impressive shut-out.
Panthers were leading 6-0 at the time and came out for the third period looking to shut the game down.
But just three minutes in, a wicked shot came in from the Clan point and clanged off the goal frame and rebounded out.
Braehead thought it had gone in, but referee Mike Hicks was on the spot and when he consulted the goal judge, who didn't light the red lamp, he washed it out, with Clan coach Ryan Finnerty letting his feelings be known.
It wouldn't have made much difference to the outcome but would have been unfortunate for Conway who again did well as deputy for injured No.1 goalie Craig Kowalski.
But after a scrappy opening with neither side able to string two passes together, it was perhaps fitting that Panthers should take the lead with an 'own goal'.
Unlike in football, there are no such things as own goals in ice hockey, with instead the attacker who last touched the puck being accredited with the score.
On this occasion, after just four minutes, Clan goaltender Kyle Jones' fumbled the puck and it went over the line off the stick of team-mate Joe Cullen.
It will go down in the records as a goal from Matt Ryan but three minutes later he got a 'real' one to stick, having two bites to force it home after another surging rush from Petr Kalus.
And it was 3-0 in the 13th minute, with Kalus firing home just as a Panthers powerplay was finished.
Clan were being run ragged and before they could recover, Rob Farmer rattled in No.4 (17.38) on the powerplay with a nice inside pass from David Clarke.
And it went from bad to worse for Clan when, just seconds from the first break, Jones could only half stop a shot from Murray which trickled over the line for the fifth goal.
Four minutes into the second period, with the sides 4-on-4 and Panthers having the advantage of a delayed penalty, Clarke jumped into the play to power home a pass from Jon Weaver for the only goal of the middle session and a 6-0 scoreline.
It could have been more but the usually deadly Matt Francis fired wildly over when he was put clear short-handed.
After Clan had been denied their 'goal' at the start of the third period, Joe Jensen redirected an effort past Jones for the seventh (49.26).
And the rout was finished in the 53rd minute when, after another surging rush from Kalus, Leigh Salters was left in space to chip the puck home from close range.
On Saturday in South Wales, a series of quite bizarre penalties didn't stop Panthers taking a 2-0 lead in the opening period with Ryan and Farmer, shorthanded, giving them the edge.
But with referee Tom Darnell coming up with some strange calls and victimising the visitors, playing shorthanded for so long was always going to take its toll.
And goals from Andrew Lord (2), MacFaulkner turned the game on its head before a short-handed empty-netter from ex-Panther Matthew Myers sealed a 4-2 win for Devils.
Strangely, Panthers could only manage 23 shots on Devils back-up goaltender, Myers' younger brother Joe, amid a succession of penalties which saw Salters binned for most of the second period after picking up an instigator call for fighting at the end of the first and then losing import defenceman Murray for attempted spearing for much of the third.
The only thing of note to come out of the game for Panthers was that their penalty killing unit, which is the worst in the league on the road, only gave up one goal from nine Devils powerplays.
PANTHERS 8, BRAEHEAD 0
(5-0, 1-0, 2-0)
Murray 1+4; Kalus 1+3; Salters, Clarke 1+2; Ryans 2+0; Jensen 1+1; Weaver 0+2; Farmer 1+0; Francis, Benedict 0+1.
Shots on goal: Panthers (on Jones) 41, Clan (on Conway) 36 (20/12, 12/12, 9/12)
Penalty mins: Panthers 8, Clan 12 (2/4, 4/6, 2/2)
Panthers man of the match: Neil Conway
Referee: Mike Hicks
Attendance: 5,115
CARDIFF 4, PANTHERS 2
(0-2, 3-0, 1-0)
Panthers' scorers: Farmer, Ryan 1+0, Salters, Kalus, Murray 0+1.
Shots on goal: Devils (on Conway) 26 +1 on empty net, Panthers (on J Myers) 23 (8/7, 10/7, 9/9)
Penalty mins: Devils 23, Panthers 55 (33/13, 18/6, 4, 4)
Panthers' man of the match: Matt Francis
Referee: Tom Darnell
Attendance: 1,457
Other results: Hull 7 Edinburgh 1; Belfast 5 Sheffield 2; Fife 7 Braehead 6 (after overtime); Coventry 4, Sheffield 1; Edinburgh 3, Dundee 2.
*Great Britain U20s, including Nottingham's Danny Rose and Ollie Betteridge, hit back from 2-1 down to defeat Japan 4-2 in the World Championships relegation game in Dumfries to retain their place in Division 1B. Liam Stewart, son of aging rock star Rod, got the game-clinching empty-net goal. Italy won the gold medal and are promoted.