This weekend’s games against the Australian Ice Hockey League leaders, the Melbourne Ice, would be a tough ask for the Adelaide Adrenaline who had recently found some good form, especially last weekend against grabbing 4points against 3rd placed Perth Thunder. The Ice boasted some very good imports in Joakim Erdugan, Austin Albrecht, Roman Kraemer, Jeff Solow and goal tender from Japan, Tatsunoshin Ishida, the best currently in the league. The Ice were without some seasoned campaigners in Liam Webster, Joey Hughes and Jamie Bourke. The Adrenaline on the other hand had added brothers Remy and Marcel McGuinness who had last played for the Adrenaline in 2019 and were raring to go!
First period saw the Adrenaline match it with the Ice with their new found confidence. A cross-checking penalty to Adrenaline’s Josh Adkins with 13:54 left on the clock gave the Ice the chance to open the scoring with the man advantage, but the Adrenaline’s penalty kill unit saw off the penalty with no change on the scoreboard. Each foray forward by either team was met with excellent goaltending from both teams. Eventually it would be Ice’s import Kraemer that scored first at 5:20, with assists coming from Albrecht and captain Mackenzie Caruana. A bit over 2mins later Albrecht headed to the sinbin for a hooking minor but the Adrenaline were met with a wall of Ice and Ishida! Shots on goal saw both teams put 11 shots on.
The 2nd period was as tight as the first with end to end hockey and neither team finding a breakthrough. The Adrenaline were certainly holding up well against their higher fancied opposition, and the two McGuinness boys had slotted in well again to fast pace of the AIHL. The first big chance to score came when Adrenaline’s Adkins was deemed for goaltender interference at 14:55 but there was no change in the score much to the team and home crowd’s relief. Next, Adrenaline’s Zach Boyle would have a 2min rest in the sinbin for tripping, Ice’s Caruana would go to the sinbin also for tripping, at 5:39. The Adrenaline were unable to score, and then with less than 2mins left in the period Caruana would give the Ice a 2-goal buffer. The assists came from Kraemer and Albrecht. Shots on goal for the period saw the Adrenaline post 13 shots to the Ice’s 10 shots.
The 3rd period saw plenty of goals, but also plenty of penalties. Firstly Adrenaline’s Kaden Elder would reduce the margin back to one goal at 18:46 (assists Adkins and Nathaniel Benson). Ice’s Albrecht would restore the 2-goal margin a bit over 2mins later. The Ice had 3 penalties in the first 5mins of the period but the Adrenaline were unable to score on Ishida despite a 5-on-3 advantage. Adrenaline’s Daniel Chen got a tripping penalty at 6:42 and Ice’s Kraemer made short work of it scoring the Ice’s 4th goal only 30secs later. Late in the period the game descending into chaos with the sting out of the game and the Adrenaline frustrated. A lot of roughing occurring around the Ice goal with Adrenaline’s Adkins, Ice’s Lachlan Cincotta and Christian Pansino heading to the sinbin for roughing. The Adrenaline dragged goaltender Rylan Toth off but a very long shot from Albrecht found the net and gave the Ice a 5-1 win. However, a positive for the Adrenaline was that they had more shots on goal for a lot of the game, and in fact controlled the last period with 13 shots on goal to the Ice’s 5 shots. Ishida, the Ice goaltender was simply a thorn in their side.
