Selected photos from the Australian Ice Hockey League game between last placed Adelaide Adrenaline and second to last placed Newcastle Northstars played on 24/05/2025 at the Ice Arena, Adelaide, South Australia. The Adrenaline were going to face an uphill battle this weekend as the Northstars now apparently had all their imports (seems to be a thing with the Northstars always acquiring their imports later in the season and then making inroads in the competition). They boasted Evgenii Skachkov, a former player from the KHL, arguably the second highest league in the world after the NHL, and Karel Kubat, a former player of the highest Czech league, and Francis Drolet who had played in Italy2, Ligue Magnus and France2 leagues. The Adrenaline would be without the services of key defenceman Shaun Dosanjh on the injury list with concussion. Goaltenders for the game would be import Cale Dolan for the Adrenaline, and ex-Adelaidean Charlie Smart for the Northstars.
The opening few minutes were a hectic and bruising affair with photographers and video guys having to duck for cover on numerous occasions as the large spectator crowd were in for some intense action with plenty of body checks into the boards etc as these two bottom teams had a point to prove. The Northstars would show their intensions with 2 goals within a minute at 13:19 and 12:30. Riley Klugerman (assists Liam Ryan and Casey Kubara) scored the first, and Evgenii Skachkov (assists Francis Drolet and Kim Tallberg) the second. Karel Kubat would head to the penalty box at 5:42 for the obscure “handling the puck” penalty but the Adrenaline were unable to make use of the man advantage and score. They did however reduce the margin to 1 goal late in the period at 1:22 when Joey MacDougall found the back of the net off an assist from a fired-up Darcy Flanagan. Shots on goal saw the Northstars dominate 10-5.
The 2nd period continued in the same vein as the 1st. Skachkov would receive a roughing penalty at 15:27 and again their penalty kill unit were up to the task. Shortly after the penalty finished Adrenaline’s Josh Adkins scored the equaliser (assists Flanagan and Sean Greer). However, the joy was shortlived as Flanagan received an interference call at 12:53 and the Northstars made short work of it to score their 3rd goal at 12:24 through Ryan (assists Drolet and Skachkov). Adrenaline’s Flanagan would receive another penalty, high-sticking, at 9:57 but their penalty kill unit saw off the penalty. At 4:29 there was a distinct momentum shift in favour of the Northstars as they would add 3 goals (Tallberg, Shane Southwood, and Tallberg again) in the rest of the period to set up a commanding 3 goal buffer going into the last period. The shots on goal were telling with the Northstars hammering Dolan with 20 shots, to the Adrenaline’s 7 shots on Smart.
The 3rd period saw the Northstars continue where they left off, piling on another 3 unanswered goals by the 12:46 mark (Skachkov 2 goals and Ryan one goal), much to the delight of the raucous Newcastle Northstars visiting fans. At 9:27 the exciting Daniel Koudelka would break the flow with a goal for the Adrenaline (assist MacDougall and Greer). Now sooner that the puck dropped again the Northstars would score immediately with their 10th goal though Klugerman (assists Ethan Hawes and Kubara). Only 4mins later Klugerman would add his hattrick goal (assist Kubara). There had been an plethora of penalties handed out in the 3rd period, 4 to the Adrenaline (Darcy Flanagan roughing and an unsportsmanlike, Kyle MacPhail roughing, and Yoann Levesque tripping), and 4 to the Northstars (Timothy Stanger roughing, Tyrone Oxlade holding and tripping, Liam Ryan roughing). Shots on goal told the story, Northstars 40, Adrenaline 25. Sunday’s game would need the Adrenaline to find something extra against the likes of Skachkov and Klugerman.
When selecting a photo to view, click on the thumbnail, then click on the small photo that first appears, to then view the larger image.
