The Newcastle Northstars defeated the Sydney Bears 7-1 on Saturday night at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium. With a hat-trick from Daniel Berno, first goal for young gun Ethan Hawes and goals from veterans Beau Taylor and Patrick Nadin, the team controlled the game to bring home the convincing win, and maintain their second place position in the Australian Ice Hockey League.

Northstars forward Daniel Berno shared his thoughts about his hat-trick and shorthanded goals, “You get those breaks to take a shot, it’s the support from the pressure with teammates getting the puck to me, and I take the shot on net, (Playing with this team) feels great, we have something special going on here, we’re here to play every single game, practices are hard. We are here for a long season and we're here to go all the way.”

The Northstars and Bears moved the puck end to end all night, but it was the Northstars who set the pace of the game and maintained their composure. With two short-handed goals and a 5-minute penalty successfully killed, the Northstars put on a strong show for the capacity crowd.

The first intermission was called early after a technical issue with one of the bench gates. Repairs were completed, and the remaining 3 minutes and 5 seconds from the first period were played before the teams switched ends to begin the second period.  Coming out fresh, Bears forward Brian Kim scored his team’s only goal of the night, which was quickly answered by Northstars defender Ethan Hawes scoring his first AIHL goal.

Both teams came out hungry to score at the start of the third period. Northstars goalie, James Downie, who has just returned to Australia following a stint in the UK’s professional Elite Ice Hockey League, maintained his strong performance between the pipes and kept the Bears strongest offensive efforts at bay.

Head Coach John Kennedy was thrilled with the young netminder’s performance, saying “If you look at our stats all our goalies are in the top 3. At the end of the day while James Downie is young, he has AIHL experience and he is a professional. He has come back from the UK playing in the EIHL and he is showing his experience, daily habits and mentality. He does not get shaken up, he is a solid guy in the nets and we have the confidence he will bail us out. With that confidence we are able to make more plays, and that is showing on the scoreboard.”

“We got closer to playing our game for 60 minutes - I don’t think we’re completely there yet but each game we get better and better. The score is what it is, but it’s not what we’re focused on. We know that if we keep doing the right things day in and day out the success will come. We are pushing to play the 60 minutes our way and that will be our success.” Kennedy continued.

Reflecting on the Northstars pre-game preparations Kennedy stated “(We) never go into a game thinking we’re going to win. We take it one shift at a time, and if we are successful, then great. If not then we re-jig. We’ve had all our engines going in regard to our offense, and our defensemen have been chipping in with Ethan Hawes a threat from the blue line.”

The Northstars next home game will see them face the Sydney Ice Dogs at 4pm on Sunday 22^nd May at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium. Tickets available from https://northstars.thundertix.com/

Photo by AK Hockey Shots