Devils beat Panthers to finish second in Elite League

Cardiff Devils finished second in the Elite League after a 4-1 win at rivals Nottingham Panthers.

The Welsh side will now take on seventh seeds Coventry Blaze in the quarter-finals next weekend, travelling to the West Midlands on Saturday, 11 April (19:00 BST) and then hosting the second leg on the Sunday (17:00 BST).

Cardiff went into the final fixture of the regular season with a one-point lead over their hosts, who would have gone second with a win in normal time.

It remained level after two periods but Devils took control when Kristoff Kontos' opener was followed by goals by Jimmy Oligny and a power-play effort by Josh MacDonald.

Tim Doherty got Nottingham off the mark but any hope of a comeback was soon extinguished by Brett Perlini.

The reward for finishing second is the chance to avoid already-crowned league champions Belfast Giants until the play-off final.

Nottingham stayed above fourth-placed Sheffield, who lost in overtime in Glasgow, by virtue of results between teams after they were tied on points and wins.

Panthers will face Manchester Storm in the quarter-finals, Steelers will take on Guildford Flames, while Belfast's last-eight opponents will be Glasgow Clan.

The play-off semi-finals, final and third-fourth play-off all take place in Nottingham on the weekend of 18-19 April.