A double home game draw saw the Escadia Newcastle Northstars pulling all the stops in front of bumper crowds at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium. On Saturday night, the Northstars defeated Melbourne Mustangs 7-4 in regulation time. They then followed this up on Sunday, beating Perth Thunder 3-2 in Overtime.
The two wins were the icing on the cake for what was a very moving weekend for the club. Sunday was nothing short of a very special day for the Newcastle Northstars community. In the morning, gathering at Speers Point Park for the Hunter leg of Walk to Defeat MND, the club showed just how strong they are together. Two members of our community with the Motor Neurone Disease, Luke Doré and Vaughan Christie, saw the Northstars club rally around. Over 800 people came to walk and raise over $150k for research and awareness.
On
Saturday, four goals set the tone of the game for the Newcastle Northstars with Kim Tallberg (2), Francis Drolet and Liam Manwarring all getting the sell-out crowd on their feet. Scott Timmins got one on the board for Melbourne late to close the period.
“I think we started really well and had a really good first period, and that changes the game, right? Our goal is to play a full 60, and we played 40 out of the 60, but it was really close, and it was a good game,” shared captain Liam Manwarring.
“You get the jump early, and then it changes your momentum,” continued Manwarring. “I think you can jump pretty high, and then we held onto it for such a long time. We’ve been talking about it all year, that the way we lose a game is when we beat ourselves. Tonight, still I think that we had mistakes in our game, but as a group we’ve realised that, we recognise it, we pump each other up on the bench.”
Wehebe Darge and Casey Kubara were the next two to score in period two, with Scott Timmins and Mac Roy finding the net for Melbourne taking it to a 6-3 scoreline at the break.
In the third period, Tallberg secured his hat-trick goal of the evening for Newcastle, and Mac Roy his second of the night for Melbourne.
“Offensively, we were threatening and clinical, and we had finish,” began head coach Kevin Noble. “When you have your best guys being your best guys and getting on the score sheet like they did, you’re going to be in a position to win a lot of hockey games, and they were really good tonight.”
“We were pretty good away from the puck and off the puck. Still there are some things we can fix up individually as we move forward. The pace of play was really fast tonight, and I thought our speed through the neutral zone and our decision making offensively and our finish was really good.”
The night also saw the debut and first win in the AIHL for new goalie, Horrance Cheung. Manwarring shared his thoughts on the new shot stopper: “He’s a great guy, he’s fitting in really well. Hard to judge off just one game, but he played very well tonight. It’s good to have him and Charlie who can work in tandem together, and it’s just another piece of the puzzle that we’ve added for a positive side.”
Noble shared his thoughts on Cheung, “Horrance was good tonight. He gave us a chance to win and he made some big saves when we need him to make them.”
“That’s a championship squad,” finished Manwarring.
Sunday was an emotional day for the organisation. Following the morning’s Walk to Defeat MND, after being shown so much love and support from the Northstars community, Luke and Vaughan stepped onto the ice for the ceremonial puck drop to get the afternoons game underway.
It was a scoreless first period for both teams, with plenty of back and forth. It was only in the second period that Perth Thunder’s Robert Lachowicz and Yannic Lodge opened the scoring, netting the first two goals of the game. Newcastle responded shortly after; Kim Tallberg scored during the power play and Casey Kubara followed soon after to level the game.
A scoreless third period saw the game go to overtime. A full crowd cheered on the Escadia Newcastle Northstars and Yevgeni Skachkov scored the game-winning goal with 50 seconds left in the five-minute overtime.
“That’s a massive win for us. The biggest of the season for us in my eyes with the day that we’ve had as a club,” began Captain Liam Manwarring.
“As a club, well it’s a tough topic with what we’ve been going through this year with Luke. And we rallied tonight, and that just shows the grit and determination of how the club’s built. I didn’t think it was our best performance all around, but we stuck together, and that shows that we’re made for the playoffs this year.”
“I looked at the shot count at the end there: it’s 54-20. We outplayed them. It’s just a building block every week, right now. We’re outplaying teams. It’s only going to get better and better.”
“Charlie was unreal tonight. He was so good and I’m so proud of him. I think our goaltending this weekend was good,” finished Manwarring.
Key players stepped up and were the names on the scoresheet at the end of the game on Sunday. Head coach Kevin Noble shared, “Our best guys, we often refer to them as your most skilled guys. But I thought tonight the guys that sometimes don’t get credit helped us win the game. They don’t show up on the scoresheet but some of the desperation in the plays they made were really strong and they helped us get through in a game that wasn’t coming easy.”
“In a situation like tonight, it adds stress in your game. Then your best guys that play a lot and on the powerplay find frustration sets in when they don’t find success. But it was impressive that we didn’t let that frustration stick around too long.”
“In a night that is about Luke, it was important to get the win for him. That’s the story for the night. The rest doesn’t matter.”
“We have things to work on this week, but we’ve had a lot of possession, playing with a lot of pace, and we’re really threatening. We’re just not clinical enough at times finishing. They’ve got to take it on and figure out with personnel where guys go in our special teams and what that will look like.”
“Charlie stepped up tonight, he didn’t get a lot of looks and the ones he had to save were tough. There were a lot of dead moments in the game for him and he has to stay focused because the one you do get ends up being a big opportunity. He stuck at it and made some key saves at the end.”
The Newcastle Northstars are home for another double header next weekend:
Sat 28
th June vs top of the table Melbourne Ice
Sun 29
th June vs Canberra Brave
Tickets available at northstars.thundertix.com
THUNDER
MUSTANGS
ADRENALINE
ICE
LIGHTNING
NORTHSTARS
RHINOS
BRAVE
