The last double-header for the 2024 Australian Ice Hockey League season at the Ice Arena, Adelaide, South Australia saw the Brisbane Lightning come to town. The Lightning (and the Bluetongues previously) are known for their physicality and size of their players. This was highlighted by the 6foot 6inch Russia/Mongolian giant Batu Gendunov and other talls such as 6ft 4in Mitchell Dyck, 6ft 5in Mikko Rippon and 6ft 5in Julian Fodor. The Adrenaline aren’t known for their size, but they make up for it with agility! In goals for the Adrenaline would be Rylan Toth and for the Lightning on the Saturday, Nicholas Novysedlak. The Adrenaline were hoping that their smaller, more nimble players would come out more fresh after Saturday’s bruising encounter. The Lightning had their import goaltender Curtis Meger in between the pipes.

The same physicality and intensity was played as the Saturday’s game between the two teams. Noticeably the Adrenaline’s new Ukrainian import Alexander Voronin looked more settled and confident. Both teams took the puck end to end but no chances of getting past the goaltenders. The first hiccup came at 12:38 when Lightning’s Aaron Wanat caught the referee’s attention and headed to the penalty box for cross-checking. The Adrenaline were unable to score with the man advantage. They were however able to at full strength with 4mins to play in the period when import Kaden Elder scored. The assists came from fellow import Josh Adkins and Daniel Chen. Shots on goal for the period was 9-a-piece.

The 2nd period was more of the same end-to-end hockey with physicality thrown in for good measure. No goals were scored! However there had been some chances for the Adrenaline when Lightning’s stirrer Derry Adler went for slashing at 5:28 and Mikko Rippon for roughing at 1:33. As expected with the 2 penalties the Adrenaline were able to dominate the shot total 13-8.

Not sure if the bigger bodies were starting to get tired or not but it appeared the Adrenaline had all the answers, and at 16:15 Daniel Chen posted a sweet goal from the big grandstand side to give the Adrenaline some breathing room after having to defend their slender 1-goal lead since 4min mark in the 1st period. The assists came from Elder and Adkins. The Adrenaline’s Sean Greer fell foul of the referees and he headed to the penalty box for tripping at the 12:43 mark. The Adrenaline’s defence held firm frustrating the Lightning. Again the Adrenaline gave the Lightning a powerplay as captain Joey MacDougall was also done for tripping. The Adrenaline were brimming with confidence and energy and not willing to let this one slip through the grasp as they needed all the points in the win to try and catch the Lightning on the ladder. Lightning’s Mitch Dyck on the bench looked spent and defeated. The Lightning had put shot after shot on Toth but he stopped them all. Lightning’s goaltender Meger was brought back to the bench late in the period for the extra attacker. However, Kaden Elder found the empty net snuffing out any chance of a late comeback. The assists came from Adkins and Shaun Dosanjh. Shots on goal for the game saw the Lightning ahead 31 shots on goal to the Adrenaline’s 27 shots. The 4 points gap between the two teams remained.