The Newcastle Northstars continued their undefeated run in the 2022 Australian Ice Hockey League Season with a victory on the road defeating the Sydney Ice Dogs 8-2 at Macquarie Ice Rink. The same two teams met again on Sunday at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in front of a capacity crowd, winning 5-4.

Saturday’s game in Sydney started with the two teams moving the puck end to end, but it was the Northstars who led the Ice Dogs 1-0 at the end of the first period following a powerplay goal from Captain Liam Manwarring.

Period two saw the Northstars take control of the game, with rookie Riley Tonks scoring his first AIHL goal, and Mackenzie Gallagher adding another goal to the tally. In the final period the Ice Dogs capitalised on a Northstars penalty, ending the potential shutout for the visitors. The Northstars responded with a flurry of goals over a minute and a half from Robert Malloy, Francis Drolet, Beau Taylor, with Manwarring completing his hattrick in the middle of the goal scoring frenzy.

Late in the period the Ice Dogs fought their way in to score their second goal of the game, but it was the Northstars’ night, taking an 8-2 win back home via the M1 Highway.

Tonks beamed as he reflected on scoring his first AIHL goal, “It felt really good, I felt like it got us in the game a little bit and felt good to support the team by stopping the play then jumping in and making a play. It feels really good to get it out of the way and hopefully more to come.”

Associate Coach Amelia Matheson praised the young defender’s game “It’s wonderful right, it was the right opportunity to step in the play, right spot right time, finish it off, he deserved it and I’m glad it happened for him.”

“Riley’s been working so hard. He’s a good young player, he saved a goal and went down and scored all on the same shift, all the boys are happy for him.”, said teammate and Northstars centre Francis Drolet.

Sunday afternoon saw the two teams face off again, playing end to end hockey from the very beginning. The Northstars opened the scoring with Beau Taylor and Connor Schultz scoring within minutes of each other to give the home team a 2-0 lead. Ice Dogs forward Grant Toulmin responded with a goal 20 seconds later to close the gap.

In the second period, both teams continued to battle from end to end, with Northstars centre Francis Drolet next to score, answered by Ice Dogs forward Strat Allen to end the period 3-2. Both teams pushed hard in the penalty riddled period to capitalise on opportunities but the goalies at each end stood their ground.

Comparing the games from the weekend, Drolet said “I think the other team played a good game, that first line were going tonight compared to last night. It’s good for the team to have some adversity like this, and when we’re playing against Canberra it’s going to be close games. It was a good test for the guys in the second game today.”

The third period saw Ice Dogs came out fast and hungry for the puck. Toulmin picked up his second goal of the night, followed by Thomas Voller to give the Ice Dogs their first lead of the weekend and for the first time this season, the Northstars were trailing. Facing this new adversity head on, Northstars Richie Tesarik scored the equalising goal, and Drolet scored the game winning goal with 7 mins left in the period. The Northstars held off their opponent’s desperation for points and secured their sixth victory of the season in front of their home crowd.

Northstars Head Associate Coach, Kevin Noble, praised the Ice Dogs performance, “I thought the Dogs were really good tonight, they worked, and they pushed us to the end, honestly, they’re deserving of a win.”

“That team gave us everything we can handle, and we got pushed late in the game, and we got some big goals from key players on our team.”

“We let them dictate the pace of the play, in the last 10mins we played our best hockey when we had to get urgent. They were good tonight, there’s no taking away what they did, we need to reset and get back to work.”

 “They gave us a hard-fought weekend, and we (came) away from this weekend with some lessons, as tonight we were expecting an easy game.”, Noble finished.

Following the game Sunday night, Drolet shared the Northstars were focussed on moving forward, “When you get 6 points in a weekend you obviously feel good, but the whole team knows there are things we need to work on. The last 10 minutes we played better as a team, it the little details we need to work on to be successful.”

“It was fun that this game happened at home, the fans get the adrenaline and nervousness with us and it’s always fun winning at home with our own crowd.”

The next game will see the Northstars face the Brisbane Lightning at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on June 5^th. Tickets are available for purchase online via https://northstars.thundertix.com