Perth Thunder defeated the Newcastle Northstars 1-4 on Saturday night at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium.

Lightning struck fast in the opening minute of period one, Perth Thunder led 1-0 right through to the third period.

Northstars seemingly slow and struggling to gel on the ice, they were outskated by Perth and couldn’t get past their defensive lines.

“If we have a tough period we always talk about bouncing back and having a better one. All season long it seems like if we have a bad period we come out hard the next one and take control of the play.” Said Northstars Import Matt Marantz.

Perth Thunder Head Coach David Ruck said “Overall I think we executed our game plan very well tonight I thought.”

Coming out stronger in the second period, Northstars couldn’t capitalize on their opportunties and it remained a scoreless period.

In spite of multiple big penalties and and an ejection from the game for Perth in the second, their defensive lines stood strong and the Northstars couldn’t break through.

“We should have shot more, but sometimes you have to give credit to the other team, I was out there and they did a really good job of defending for most of it. We should have got some more shot to the net.” Said Marantz

“I didn’t have much to shoot at, honestly. They had a big goalie and they had guys laying down in front of shots and it was tough to get an open net, but we’ll be better tomorrow night.”

“I actually felt we got a few penalties on us, which slowed our flow down, and we were a little bit on the back foot after that but I was glad that we didn’t get scored on and were able to come out of that period (two) without getting scored on.” Said Ruck.

“It is something that has hurt us this year so far, taking penalties and getting scored on, shorthanded. And we have been shorthanded with 5 on 3 numerous times this year” said Ruck.

Third period both teams lifted in intensity and with it came strong battles for the puck, along with more big hits and more goals.

A power play goal for Harcharik saw the Northstars crowd erupt as they leveled the score at 1-1.

With end to end skating both teams had strong power skates to break into each others zone and it was Perth who took advantage of their opportunities with goals from both Christian Ouellet and Benjamin Breault giving Perth a 1-3 lead.

“We thought we controlled most of the game, we made some mental mistakes and that’s on all of us. We kind of left mizzy out to dry there, we’ll be better tomorrow night.” Said Marantz.

With an empty net in the final minutes of the period the Northstars tried to lift with a man advantage but Christian Ouellet sealed their win lobbing the puck from the neutral zone for their final and winning goal.

“Newcastle is one of the premier teams in the league, and to come to Newcastle and win is always fantastic for us as a road trip.” Ruck said.

“We are moving forward, put that one behind us and come and get a win tomorrow night” said Marantz.

Photo credit: Miki Holmes