Selected photos from the Australian Ice Hockey League game between the Adelaide Adrenaline and the Melbourne Mustangs played on 19/07/2025 at the Ice Arena, Adelaide, South Australia. Both teams were sitting in the bottom 4, desparate for a win in these final weeks of the season. During the week the Adrenaline and their import coach Jade Galbraith parted ways (mutually) so the coaching duties were left to Gen Foll and Joey MacDougall for the remainder of the season. Notably absent from the roster would be the junior players, Dominic Trnka, Luka Loria and Nikita Loria that had headed over to the Tange U18 National Championships. The Mustangs would be without the services of former NHL player Scott Timmins, Hayden Dawes and Vadim Virjassov, last time they had played in Adelaide. The Mustangs would again have the very experienced Anthony Kimlin as starting goaltender. The Mustangs would need to have studied the Adrenaline’s game plan from the night before.
The period started with a different flavour than the previous night with the Mustangs playing a more aggressive game to unsettle the Adrenaline. Eventually the refs awarded Mustangs Robin Vortanov a roughing penalty at 12:43. On the powerplay, the recently back in Adelaide, Harley Anderson scored at 11:15 to give the Adrenaline the early lead (assists Darcy Flanagan, Marcel McGuinness). The Adrenaline again held the Mustangs at bay to take a 2-goal lead as Josh Adkins beat Kimlin (assists Nathanel Benson, Zach Boyle). A penalty at 4:15 to Mustangs key player Nathan Dunkley for slashing gave the Adrenaline another chance on the powerplay but there would be no change to the scoreline. Shots on goal: Adrenaline 13, Mustangs 11.
The 2nd period would be wild, filled with 8 penalties, starting off with Mustangs Mac Roy for delay of game, and Dean Klomp for interference and Adrenaline’s Josh Adkins for interference, all at 18:04. The Mustangs came out with renewed vigour after the break and Dean Klomp reduced the deficit to one goal at 14:04 on the powerplay (assists Dunkley, Brody Lindal). On a 5-on-3 powerplay (Adrenaline’s Josh Adkins for cross-checking and Zach Boyle for holding), Klomp would add another goal to tie things up at 11:14. Shots on goal for the period: Adrenaline 10, Mustangs 7.
In the 3rd period, a roughing penalty to Mustangs Adam Harper at 14:26 gave the Adrenaline a chance to go ahead but the Mustangs penalty kill unit saw off the penalty. The Mustangs however were able to score shorthanded through Dunkley (assist Brody Lindal), silencing the loud Adrenaline home crowd, but there was plenty of time left for the Adrenaline to come back. This they would as Josh Adkins levelled the score at 9:59 (assists Benson, Romans Nekludovs). The last few minutes were a mad skirmish at both ends with many shots fired on goal only to be thwarted by excellent goaltending of Cale Dolan and Anthony Kimlin. With under 30secs to play the puck would be dropped just out from the Adrenaline goal and all it needed was the puck to be cleared down the ice, even for an icing, anything to get it out of the zone, but unfortunately for the Adrenaline an error near the centre saw Brody Lindal snatch victory for the Mustangs with 11secs to go. This game deserved to go to overtime, but it wasn’t to be. The last period had seen the Adrenaline once again dominate the shot count, 13 to 8.
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