BUBBLING Nottingham Panthers put the doubters firmly in their place with two superb victories on the opening weekend of the Elite League season.

They defeated red-hot title favourites Belfast Giants 4-3 after penalty shots on Saturday in front of a league record first-night crowd of 5,313 at the National Ice Centre.

And if that wasn't good enough, they followed up last night by stuffing league champions Coventry Blaze 7-4 on their own ice after another awesome display.

Grit, grind and graft are three attributes not usually associated with a Corey Neilson side, which is normally based purely on finesse.

But they showed enough of all three, plus a large amount of skill and nous, to seal a fine four-point weekend and share the top of the table with Sheffield Steelers.

Being able to play in-your-face-hockey like that is helped, of course, when you have two big players, in Alex Penner and Guillaume Lepine, willing to stick up for their team-mates.

A feast of seven goals in the opening period at the Skydome set the tone as Panthers hit back from a goal down in the third minute to dominate the rest of the session and take a 4-3 lead.

The dreadful state of the ice – worse than it usually is on the notoriously poor Coventry rink – contributed to the goals-glut, with the puck taking awkward bounces and skips.

Both goalies would take a couple of those back, but Panthers' stopper Craig Kowalski came up big when it mattered in the final period when Blaze tried to force the pace.

Panthers even managed to brave out two 5-on-3 penalty kills but anything other than a win for the dominant visitors – who also hit the post three times – would have been an injustice.

After Brad Cruikshank had put Coventry ahead on the power-play, Matthew Myers' leveller two minutes later typified Panthers' performance.

His line with David Beauregard and Billy Ryan refused to let Blaze get the puck away and sheer doggedness saw Myers back-hand past Brett Jaeger.

After Penner obliged Jeff Smith with a fight, although few clean punches were thrown, Blaze went back in front against the run of play, when Greg Chambers chased down a long clearance and set up Luke Fulghum (9.21).

The goals continued to come thick and fast, with David Clarke making Jaeger pay for a fumble on his line to level it up again ((11.06).

And Panthers' pressure told again with Jade Galbraith neatly deflecting home from Jon Zion (14.07).

Although Owen Fussey's wrap-round equaliser (14.58) stunned Panthers, they hit back a minute later, with Ian McDonald calmly hanging on to the puck and circling the net before picking his spot.

It was a lead they were never to relinquish and the shots on goal tally for the period of 22-7 to Panthers told the whole story.

Coach Neilson hit a sweet fifth on the half-hour mark after Panthers killed off a 5-on-3 penalty, then a quick break ended with Beauregard stretching to touch in No.6 (37.47).

Blaze pulled one back through Greg Owen three minutes into the final period, but neither side could take advantage as the penalties flowed.

And it was left to man of the match Billy Ryan to seal a fine performance by looping the seventh into the empty net from his own zone three seconds from time.