I couldn't believe that every time we got some momentum going against the Panthers that Andy Carson took it away from us by calling penalties.

It seemed that we could be hacked and whacked all night long, that Ryan Finnerty could be mauled in a corner, but any contact we made seemed to be penalised.

We go 2-0 up, remember, we were three goals down from the first leg, momentum is with us and then bang, bang, penalty, penalty and it's 2-2.

Going into the third period on aggregate three goals down, most teams would have buried their heads, but not us, we fought and battled and when Jeff Legue scored to make it 4-2, momentum was once again with us.

The Panthers were shaking and all we wanted was the opportunity to play five-on-five, the opportunity to see if we were good enough to win this Challenge Cup, but the call that Andy Carson made on Jeff Legue was simply horrific.

He was the only person in the building that thought it was a penalty.

It sucked the oxygen from us, all that momentum that we had worked so hard for was taken away from us and, of course, the Panthers scored on the powerplay.

At the end of the game my frustration got the better of me; I was right to give it to the referee. I was frustrated, upset and angry that we had had this moment taken from us.

I was upset for my players, those guys that have come into Nottingham facing a near impossible situation of being three goals down and had not once, but twice, brought the game to within one goal.

Players want to play, players of both teams want a game decided by the players, not by somebody who hasn't played at this level. Why referees feel they have to interfere is beyond me.

I walked back into the dressing room to be met by a wall of silence. It's not that the guys didn't want to say anything, it's that they couldn't. They had all left everything out on the ice, none of us had anything left, physically and emotionally we were drained and we could still hear our fans cheering and singing our names.

An incredible night and in fact a victorious one for every player on our team. In front of almost 7,000 Nottingham fans we defeated them and the Panthers, we were great, but we weren't enough to beat the guy with the whistle.