The last home game of the 2024 Australian Ice Hockey League season for the Adelaide Adrenaline saw the arch rivals from years gone by, the Sydney Ice Dogs come to town.  Fitting then that the Adelaide Adrenaline wear special edition light blue retro or throwback jerseys to honour the heritage of the Adelaide Avalanche that saw some great bouts over the years with the Ice Dogs.  Fights and aggression were the common order of the day.  The Ice Dogs were below the Adrenaline going into this game so the win would be vital for either team striving to get into lower playoff spots.  The game started off with some of the Avalanche/Adrenaline Alumni players being honoured and with the first Adrenaline coach John Botterill doing the ceremonial puck drop.  Rylan Toth and Arvid Ljung were the starting goaltenders for the Adrenaline and Ice Dogs respectively.

The Ice Dogs would dominate the 1st period scoring all 3 goals scored in the period, through Mike Dalhuisen and Alex Macdonald (2 goals).  The Ice Dogs had 3 players in the penalty box to the Adrenaline one (Alexander Voronin) but the Adrenaline weren’t able to capitalise on the man advantage.  In fact Macdonald’s second goal was a powerplay goal.  Both teams had 13 shots on goal.

In the 2nd period Alex Pataky’s holding the stick penalty at 11:31 gave the Adrenaline a powerplay and defenceman Shaun Dosanjh took the opportunity and scored the Adrenaline’s first goal 30 seconds later.  The assists came from Josh Adkins and Daniel Chen.  Late in the period with 3mins remaining Ice Dogs Dmitri Kuleshov restored the 3 goal lead, with assists from Grant Toulmin and Dalhuisen.  With 1:22 remaining Adrenaline’s Marcel McGuinness pegged one back after receiving an assist from Daniel O’Handley.  The Adrenaline had piled on a lot of shots on goal, dominating 17 to 9 shots on goal.

The 3rd period saw the Adrenaline apply plenty of pressure and more shots on goal, but import goaltender Ljung was up to the task and shut down any attempts.  On the other hand Ice Dogs Macdonald scored his hat trick goal deep into the period with 3:41 remaining, all but sealing the game.  Shots on goal for the last period saw the Adrenaline fire off 13 shots to 6.  It would now be a big ask from the Adrenaline to make the finals with 4 road games remaining and having to pretty much win them all, two of which were first up against the Brisbane Lightning.

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