Northstars take a point in Adelaide Clash.

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 On Saturday night, the Newcastle Northstars faced a fighting Adelaide Adrenaline at home and were defeated 3-2 after a nail-biting shootout.
 
It was the Newcastle Northstars NAIDOC week celebrations, seeing the team hit the ice in special jersey designed by Nina Ross. You can read more about the jerseys here. Proud Awabakal woman, Aunty Cheryl, delivered a heart-warming Welcome to Country and performed the ceremonial puck drop.
 
During the Welcome to Country, Aunty Cheryl mentioned that “there are no losers, only those that gain knowledge.” The Northstars come away from Saturday’s loss with the knowledge that they need to do more to secure the win.
 
Head Coach Kevin Noble noted that whilst there were positives the team will be heading back to work. “We were good tonight for large stretches. Unfortunately, at this time of year, when you’re good, you’ve got to be just a little more special to win. We just left a little bit of that extra special behind.”
 
“For us, it will be about playoff preparation,” began Noble about looking ahead, “The next five weeks, we’ll be rounding out different details of our game and really trying to break things down and focusing on something different with a fresh focus point at each practice.”
 
Francis Drolet opened the scoring for Newcastle, who held a 1-0 lead until the final minute of the period, when Adelaide scored to equalise, taking us into the first intermission.
 
The second period reflected much the same, with an early goal from Drolet and an equaliser in the final minutes into the second intermission.
 
A scoreless third period and overtime sent the game to a shootout, and seven rounds later, Adelaide scored the game-winning goal.
 
Northstars Captain Liam Manwarring returned for his first game and shared, “It’s always such an honour to play in front of our fans. I’ll say it again: we have the best fans in the league.”
 
“It’s good to be back in the line-up tonight, but it's not about me right now. It’s about the team, and we couldn’t get it done. We’ve got to reset here, and it’s getting to the pointy end now, so we’ve got to come together and start to string together a couple of gritty wins and get used to playing in games that are tight like that and find a way to finish them off.”
 
 
Northstars get a day off on Sunday to rest and look ahead to the road trip to Melbourne, where they will take on Melbourne Mustangs on Saturday, July 20th, and Melbourne Ice on Sunday, July 21^st.