On Sunday, October 12th, Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey team raised their banner to commemorate their teeth-clenching win in the playoff final against Cardiff Devils.
Jordan Kelsall, 26, and number 14 in the Panthers team, has signed a new contract and returned for his eighth season with high hopes after their unexpected win in last season’s playoffs.
He explained winning the playoffs that occurred back in April as “the most fun I’ve had in my career.”
It was a high stakes game, where the Nottingham Ice Hockey team won 4-3 against Cardiff, in the second period of overtime, playing for nearly 100 minutes.
The proud team then celebrated on the balcony of the Motorpoint arena, with their fans cheering their deserved success.
Coming into this year’s season, it has been a mixed start – the Panthers doing their best to keep on a steady track.
“Every team is getting better so we need to keep it up. we haven’t had the best of starts, its been very up and down.”
Jordan Kelsall, 26
“It’s about bringing the best game that we can every night.” Jordan said.
The banner ceremony gave fans an opportunity to gloat over their previous meeting with fans commenting under a Panther’s Facebook post that it was ‘salt in the wound’ for the Cardiff Devils to be reminded of their loss.
A close fan to the Panthers – Jordan’s younger sister Hollie, a student in Nottingham, goes with her family to watch her brother play every game.
She witnessed the intense playoff game and said: “The whole thing was crazy. But more so, it was a really proud moment.”
This was the first time since the 2015-16 season, almost a decade ago, that the team have won the playoffs.
Fans and players have made it clear that the support shown from Nottingham and morale is still at a high and the losses are just what motivates them to be the best they can be.
Hollie added: “When the continental cup gets held in Nottingham we are going to have all our home fans behind us and I really do think we will win.”
Jordan added: “We have all the right pieces of the puzzle to do something special again.”
