Some of the photos from the second game of the weekend between the Adelaide Avalanche and the Brisbane Rampage in the Pacific Hockey League (PHL) played on 19/06/2022 at the Ice Arena, Adelaide, South Australia. After the Saturday game that saw the Avalanche go down to the Rampage 2-3, the Avalanche needed something special to thwart the Rampage. Out was Yoann Levesque, and in came Josh Bortignon, Jordan Freeman and the ever reliable Jamie Woodman from Western Australia, who had been playing in Adelaide for the recent National hockey Super League in Adelaide. The Rampage made a change in goals and put the very frugal Nicholas Novysedlak. The Avalanche could not call on the services of young gun goalie Matus Trnka as he was out with an ACL injury.
The game started the same way it did the night before much to the crowd’s pleasure with both teams applying plenty of pressure and big hits to ascert their authority onto the game. At 10:22, new recruit Jordan Freeman would score his first goal in the PHL, must to the delight of his fellow players out on the ice. The assists came from Bortignon and Steve Best. Only 9 secs after the puck was dropped, Avalanche’s Tom Sak pounced onto the puck from a pass from Woodman and slotted one past Novysedlak to put the Avalanche 2-0 up early in the game. Shortly afterwards the Rampage gave the Avalanche another scoring opportunity with the man advantage as Derry Adler headed to the bench for holding. The Avalanche piled on shot after shot on goal, stopped every time by Novysedlak. At the other end Jeremy Friederich in goals was getting cold with not a lot to do as the Rampage struggled to get past the Avalanche defences. A skirmish with 3:36mins to go in the period saw several players get minor penalties, Avalanche’s Woodman for holding, and Rampage’s Jon Bale a cross-checking penalty as well as a roughing minor. In the period Rampage’s Novysedlak faced 19 Avalanche shots on goals, with Avalanche’s Friederich facing a paltry 3 shots on goal.
In the 2nd period Rampage’s ex-AIHL Adelaide Adrenaline player Harley Anderson took matters into his own hands and reduced the margin by one at 10:51 from a powerplay, after Avalanche’s Freeman was deemed for delaying the game. The same pattern of the 1st period had played out in the 2nd period with the Avalanche still dominating the shots on goal, this time 16-5 (total to the end of the period, Avalanche 35, Rampage 8!).
The 3rd period was up for grabs, and the Rampage had come to play! Again around the 10-11 minute mark the scoreboard changed as the Rampage levelled the score through Anthony Barnes with the assist coming from his captain, Harley Anderson. Players managed to stay out of the penalty box so with even teams Daniel Chen got the go-ahead goal after the puck appeared to be trapped under Novysedlak but Chen’s eagle eyes spotted the puck behind the line and luckily so did referee Chris Park. The goal came at a crucial time to break the deadlock. The assist came from Joey Macdougall. There was still way too much time to defend the one goal margin against the relentless Rampage’s aggressive player. All it would take would be one breakaway and a goal to break the Avalanche’s hearts. However, goaltender Friederich stood firm and in the dying stages, the Rampage dragged Novysedlak for the extra attacker. However it was in vain as Avalanche’s Jake Riley broke free from the bottleneck at the Avalanche’s goal and with only one Rampage player able to try and catch him he found the empty net with 23secs remaining in the game. Both teams would come away with equal points for the round. Shots on goal were once again heavily in favour of the Avalanche to the tune of 12 to 6 (total for the game saw Rampage’s Novysedlak face 47 shots, while Avalanche’s Friederich faced only 14 shots).