The Newcastle Northstars came to Adelaide, South Australia to take on the Adelaide Adrenaline for their Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) double header at the Ice Arena on the weekend of 6-7/07/2024. The Northstars were sitting on top of the Rurak (Conference) ladder with the Adrenaline second to bottom. The Northstars had import Francis Drolet sitting high up in the points and his fellow import Bear Taylor looking for his 100th goal for the season. The Adrenaline/Avalanche and Northstars teams had had some rip-roaring games in the past and the Saturday’s game needing to be decided in overtime was no exception.
In goals for the two teams were import Rylan Toth for the Adrenaline and Charles (Charlie) Smart for the Northstars (formerly with the Perth Thunder, Adrenaline, Sydney Ice Dogs as well). The game started exactly the same way as the Saturday with both teams so evenly matched with neither able to find a way past the two goaltenders. The chance came for the Adrenaline at the 8:40 mark as the Northstars Mackenzie Gallagher headed to the penalty box for a tripping minor. The Northstars penalty kill unit headed by Francis Drolet and Beau Taylor were able to see off the penalty. Then after nearly the whole period of no goals, Adrenaline’s import Shaun Dosanjh scored off a Josh Adkins assist to put the Adrenaline into the early lead. The smaller crowd (due to Australian Football game on as well?) were just as loud as the big crowd the Saturday game. Shots on goal saw Toth face 12 shots and Smart faced 13 shots.
The second period saw the Northstars equalise relatively early at 16:24 wit Alexander Yuill scored from assists by Daniel Berno and Beau Taylor. The 2nd period saw a flurry of penalties as first Adrenaline’s Remy McGuinness had a delay of game penalty at 9:09 mark before the game descended into chaos with Northstars antagoniser Sean Oultram interfering with Adrenaline’s goaltender Toth which led to himself and Remy McGuinness fighting before the officials had to step in. The penalties dished out were Northstars Outram get 5 for fighting (cue the music), 2mins for goaltender interference and 20mins for game misconduct. Adrenaline’s Remy McGuinness would get 5 for fighting and 20mins for game misconduct! Both were ejected from the game and one player fro the Northstars bench had to sit out one of the Oultram minor penalties. The score remained the same at 1-all. Shots on goal had only been 8 a piece.
You could cut the tension with a knife in the 3rd period as the end to end hockey continued with each shot on goal thwarted by the two goaltenders. The Adrenaline had the measure of the Northstars so far and were given a powerplay at 12:04 with Northstars Berno having a 2min interference penalty. Kaden Elder would break the deadlock at the 7:35 mark, with assists from Adkins and Daniel Chen. Way too much time left in the game for the Adrenaline to go into full defensive mode but they would certainly try! Try as they might and with the clock winding down under a minute to play, the Northstars would deny the Adrenaline as Kyler Matthews scored with 47secs left in regulation. Assists had come from Yuill and Taylor.
The 5min overtime period played as 3-on-3 did not get a result despite the Northstars dominating the shot clock 6-1, so the game had to be decided by shootout, with both goaltenders have to be on their best game. Northstars Kyler Matthews would be first to face Adrenaline’s Toth and his shot would be batted away. The Josh Adkins would face Northstars Smart…and outsmarted him scoring first blood for the Adrenaline. The Francis Drolet faced Toth and surprisingly was unable to score. One more goal for the Adrenaline and the win would be theirs. None other than Kaden Elder lined up and skated to his right and then coming in from an angle scored the winning goal. These two games against the Newcastle Northstars had been some of the best the Adrenaline had played this year.
