Northstars secure first four points of the season

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The Northstars sealed their first four points of the season in an intense duo of games over a split weekend of home and away games. Both games saw the Central Coast Rhinos and the Newcastle Northstars evenly matched across the weekend with both games decided in overtime.
 
 
On Saturday 12 April 2025, the Northstars played to a capacity crowd on Saturday at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium.
 
Young player, Arki Hearn took his rookie lap before commencing warm-up in front of the crowd. Coming up from our juniors to AIHL was a big accomplishment for the young 18 year old. Paired in the defensive line with veteran Ryan Annesley, Hearn played well in his first games and showed why he had pulled on the jersey.
 
With an early goal by the Rhinos in the first period, Northstars trailed for majority of the game but stayed competitive throughout keeping the Rhinos just to one goal.  The sold-out crowd of punters got loud when Wehebe Darge scored his powerplay goal in the 10^th minute of the third period to equalise the game 1-1.
 
Going into overtime, a strong shot from Ethan Hawes would see Beau Taylor tip in the shot to seal the victory. .
 
During this game, we witnessed a showcase of the goaltenders at both ends of the ice, with both Ben Kleineschay for the Northstars and Anand Oberoi for the Rhinos standing tall.
 
This win saw Kleineschay secure his first AIHL win with Newcastle.
 
After a great overtime win, the crowd was fired up and the excitement and support would flow into the next day’s game. Newcastle travelled down to Erina Ice Arena on Sunday 13 April 2025, and both teams performed strong to produce a much higher scoring game than the night before.
 
Ryan Annesley was the first on the board for Newcastle, but the Rhinos would secure three goals to take the lead. In period two, goals from Francis Drolet, Liam Manwarring and Patrick Nadin would give the Northstars a lead.
 
Third period would see the two teams battle it out with Casey Kubara and Patrick Nadin scoring, but the Rhino’s equalised taking the game to another overtime for the weekend.
 
In the opening seconds of overtime, the Northstars got the edge with Drolet scoring to secure their victory. This goal was an amazing way to not only bring home the points for the team, but also to celebrate Drolet’s 100^th game with the team.
 
With a week off over the Easter long weekend, Newcastle will return home on Sunday 27 April to play the Melbourne Mustangs.