ZSC Lions completed what ended in a comfortable 6-1 aggregate win over the Nottingham Panthers to book their place in the Quarterfinals for the second third straight season.

The Lions, leading 3-1 from the first leg last week, had the better of the opening period and only a string of fine saves from Panthers’ netminder Michael Garnett kept the home side on level terms. The middle period saw the game open up a little more as the hosts, needing to find two goals to force overtime, started to take a few more chances. They were however eventually undone – a long pass finding Frederik Pettersson on the breakaway, and the LGT Top Scorer made no mistake beating Garnett to put the Lions three ahead overall with 26:24 gone.

The Panthers began the final period by killing off a five minute penalty, appreciated by the 6598-strong crowd in Nottingham. Eventually though Zurich’s dominance began to tell – Roman Wick with a thumping slapshot to make it 2-0 at 49:10, and then the evening was rounded off with Pettersson’s second on the powerplay with 5:40 to play.