Three Points in Derby Win for Northstars

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The Escadia Newcastle Northstars travelled to Erina on Saturday afternoon for their match-up against the Central Coast Rhinos. After a tense start, the Northstars came home with a solid 6-3 win.
 
It was a slow start in period one with both teams playing defensively. The goal tenders stood tall at both ends of the ice and it wasn’t until there was 7 minutes left in the first period that the Northstars would break through. A goal from Wehebe Darge put the Northstars on the score board and was the first of many goals to come.
 
“When you’re playing a team that’s out of the playoffs,” began Head Coach Kevin Noble, “you tend to sometimes play to your opponent’s level. You have to convince yourself to play the right way because it’s easy to play down to their level, and we did that for the first two periods.”
 
The Rhinos came out firing in period two, securing a 3-1 lead. Scoring 2 power-play goals and a full-strength goal, two from the Central Coast’s Bouchard within five minutes, the Northstars had to take stock. Newcastle’s Casey Kubara would get one back for the visitors on the power play, going to the second intermission trailing 2-3.
 
Newcastle would come out hard and unanswered in the third period. Four goals would secure the 6-3 win, with Kubara’s second goal early and a natural hat-trick from Yevgeni Skachkov to follow.
 
“In the third, we realised we have to get going here or we’re going to lose a game,” began Noble. “I think our guys were just hoping the game would come easy to them tonight, and they made us work for it, and it didn’t come easy.”
 
“We have to get our game to a spot where it’s playoff-ready. What we have to do with that is we need to start going through structurally, how we want to play and identify our keys to success. We have to be structurally sound, we have to be urgent, and we have to have close secondary puck support in the offensive zone.”
 
“Our penalty kill and special teams are going to be key. There’s really no missed assignments on those, and at the end of the day, our best guys have to be our best guys.”
 
Northstars will play their final home game next weekend on August 9 against the Adelaide Adrenaline. “Against Adelaide, we need to play with a lot more passion, a lot more heart and a lot more desire.”
 
Tickets are sold out for the 9^th August, but you can still watch all the action live on AIHL.TV