The Adelaide Adrenaline had taken away some positives from their 1-5 loss the night before (22/06/2024) against Australian Ice Hockey League leaders, the Melbourne Ice, and knew they would need to up the pace and aggression. 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 some of the biggest hits the Ice Arena has seen for quite a while (pers comm. Hugh Whittle). Once the dust had settled there was the same end to end hockey for both sides with neither able to get past the opposition goaltenders. At 6:38 the home crowed erupted when Kaden Elder struck first after assists from Josh Adkins and Zach Boyle. Adrenaline’s Daniel Chen would receive a 2min penalty for elbowing at 4:55 and Josh Adkins a tripping penalty seconds later giving the Ice a prize 5-on-3 powerplay. About a minute later came the breakthrough for the Ice as Roman Kraemer scored truly after assists from Austin Albrecht and MacKenzie Caruana. A later hooking penalty to Kraemer saw no change to the score but importantly the Adrenaline had a powerplay at the start of the 2nd period. Shots on goal for the period saw the Adrenaline edge the Ice 10-9.
The 2nd period was tight and showed that the Adrenaline could match it with the Ice. Eventually at the 12min mark the referees found a hooking penalty for Adkins and only 8secs later Ice’s captain Caruana scored. The assists came from Ellesse Carini and Albrecht. Another powerplay goal was scored by Caruana at 8:51 (Adrenaline’s Daniel Chen for charging) with assists from Joakim Erdugan and Albrecht. A hooking penalty to Ice’s Austin McKenzie at 8:29 would give the Adrenaline to chance to strike back and reduce the 2-goal margin, but they were unable to get past Ice’s goaltender Ishida. The Ice would further their lead when Kraemer scored at 6:07 after an assist from Caruana. Ice’s Sai Lake headed to the sinbin for interference at 5:08 but this was balanced when Adrenaline’s Nathaniel Benson was deemed for the same penalty at 4:56. At 4:32, Adrenaline’s Adkins gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about as the Adrenaline weren’t done yet. Elder and Boyle provided the assists. Unfortunately for the Adrenaline, Ice’s Kraemer scored with a mere 11secs remaining in the period. The assists came from Albrecht and Jacob Laver. Shots on goal for the period were 11-a-piece.
The Ice were looking the goods with a handy 5-2 lead going into the last period and the game in danger of a blow out, so the Adrenaline had to dig deep and find something special. They did early as Elder reduced the margin back to 2 goals at 15:34 (assists from Adkins and Shaun Dosanjh). Ice’s Lachlan Cincotta was pestering Adrenaline’s Joey Macdougall so much at a stoppage that Macdougall flung Cincotta’s stick away and that gave him a 2min penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. However, this was overshadowed by a stoppage and skirmish behind the Adrenaline goal when Sean Greer flung his Ice opponent into the boards earning him a 5min major for boarding. This was a significant milestone as Greer had just amassed over 400mins of penalty time in his AIHL career. The skirmish had also resulted in Ice’s Ellesse Carini getting a roughing penalty. When play resumed nothing could stop Ice’s Albrecht as he again slotted the puck behind Adrenaline’s goaltender Rylan Toth at 9:21. The assists came from Caruana and Kraemer. A tripping penalty at 4:35 saw Ice’s Jacob Laver head to the sinbin. About 6mins after the last goal Adrenaline’s Noah Maley’s hard grunt work paid off and he got the puck Ishida for a powerplay goal and putting the score at 6-4. With less than a minute to play Ice’s Christian Pancino received a tripping penalty and the Adrenaline had dragged their goaltender off for the extra attacker. However, Ice’s Kraemer launched a blinder as play resumed and from the far end of the ice found the Adrenaline goal for an empty netter and the Ice coming away with the maximum 6pts for the weekend with the 7-4 win. The Adrenaline had again posted more shots on goal 15-10.
