The Proski Newcastle Northstars faced off against the Sydney Ice Dogs for the second time in as many weeks on Sunday night at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium.

The Ice Dogs left Newcastle with a win after defeating the Northstars 4-2.

Sunday’s game was the tail end of five double header weekends and the Northstars are carrying a few injuries, seeing some crowd favourites off the ice including Jayson Chalker and Zane Jones.

“Every coach would like a healthy roster of players to choose from – we don’t,” Northstars coach Andrew Petrie said.

“We have to deal with that.”

Both teams came out guns blazing on Sunday.

The Northstars put on a show for the home crowd with a high intensity game filled with lots of chances, big hits and a few boiling points, which is always a given when these two teams face each other.

Newcastle import Matt Marantz started the attack on Damien Ketlo, the Ice Dogs goaltender, early on with a screamer of a slap shot from the blue line that was deflected off Ketlo’s pads. 

Ketlo faced 50 shots on goals, but remained calm in the face of the pressure from the North Stars.

“He [Ketlo] played really well,” Petrie said.

“Sometimes goalies play as well as you allow them to.

“I think he just had a really great game.

“He made a lot of really clutch key saves and made himself big when we were crashing the net and trying to get the dirty ones.”

The teams were locked neck and neck until Newcastle’s Jonatan Ruth scored his very first AIHL goal.

When asked about how he felt with his debut goal Ruth said: “It’s pretty good, pretty exciting.

“But to me doesn’t really matter because we lost the game. It’s bittersweet.”

Ruth has been seeing a bit more ice time this season and has been involved in a few big hits.

“That’s because Frij [coach Petrie] wants me to. I prefer not to, but it’s all good. It’s fun. I enjoy it.”

The Northstars went into in second period with a 1-0 lead.

Newcastle kept it together during the second giving import Joe Harcharik the chance to score on a power play, pushing the lead to 2-0.

However the Ice Dogs started to play a very physical game and the Northstars started to back off, allowing the visitors to push through the defence and score two unanswered goals in the last three minutes of period two.

The third period was set to be interesting with the teams all tied up at 2-2.

The Northstars couldn’t capitalise, despite many attempts to put one past Ketlo.

Rory Rawlyk put the Ice Dogs into the lead 3-2 with 10 minutes to go in the third period.

In the dying minutes of the third period the Northstars pulled goaltender Charlie Smart in an attempt to equal the score with a sixth man on the ice.

Unfortunately, Rawlyk was able to capitalise on the empty net and score for a third time during Sunday’s game.

“That was our second game this year where we played a complete game,” Petrie said.

“The result of this is obviously disappointing. It’s hard to be disappointed in their effort when they put up 50 shots and ran into a very hot goaltender.

“Sometimes the bounces don’t go your way and [Sunday]really felt like that.

“We feel we can beat any team on any given night, it’s just not panning out like that for us on the scoreboard.”

The Newcastle Northstars are back on the road this weekend for another double header in Adelaide and Perth.