Nottingham forward Alex Nikiforuk believes it’s only a matter of time before the Panthers return to winning ways in the Elite League.

Sunday’s 4-2 defeat at home to Belfast Giants was the Panthers’ fifth league loss in a row, but Nikiforuk thinks a victory could be just around the corner.

“The guys are pretty frustrated – we battled hard and we had so many chances, but we just couldn’t get that third goal,” he told Panthers TV.

“You can make all the excuses in the world – refereeing, this and that, but Belfast did what they needed to do to win. We have to come back this week and buckle down for Friday (against Coventry Blaze).

“We need to stick together – we’re an experienced group and we have a lot of character in that room, but right now it’s just not going our way.

“Bounces, we’re hitting linesmen, we’re hitting glass – we’re getting it all right now.

“We’ve got to battle on and stick together. We’re doing a lot of little things well – there are a lot more positives than negatives, but it’s obvious that we are just on the wrong side of the scoresheet right now.

“I think we’re going to be on the right side on Friday – hopefully we can win a game and hopefully we can get the fans back on board and show them we’re not going to lose every game for the rest of the year and we can come away with a strong performance.

“We’ve got to be better – we’ve got to show them that we are better, we’ve got to come with a workmanlike attitude and we’ve got to grind one out here.

“You get one win and it can turn into three – you never know but right now we are just starting with one. We want to build off the positives, block out the negatives and try and get it done on Friday.”

(Image permission: Karl Denham)