Northstars Split Weekend at Home & Away

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The Northstars had a crucial same-conference win on Saturday night, winning 4-2 against the Brave in front of a capacity crowd, followed up on Sunday night with a 1-6 loss to the Sydney Bears.
 
Saturday night, Alexander Yuill got the crowd excited when he opened the scoring for the Northstars at home.. Canberra Brave found the back of the net once, but that didn’t change the electricity in the air. Hayden Klugerman’s first AIHL career goal would put the home team ahead at the first intermission and send the crowd into an electrified frenzy.
 
Captain Liam Manwarring shared, “It feels great, that’s a big one for us. They (Canberra) always bring their best to town, and we have to respect that.”
 
Northstars forward Francis Drolet smiled as he shared, “It always feels good when Canberra is here at home as we know it’s going to be a good game, and it’s going to be a tough game.”
 
Coming out fast in the second period, Northstars put pressure on Canberra Brave, but it would be Daniel Berno whose sole goal of the period would extend the home team lead to 3-1 at the second break.
 
Head coach Kevin Noble shared, “Both sides were not at 100% health, and this was something we talked about as a group. We were good at systematic, and we were attentive to our structure and didn’t give up odd-man rushes. That’s how you win hockey games. As the season moves on, we have to be detailed, and we were tonight.”
 
This didn’t stop the crowd from getting behind their team, with regular chants and cheers keeping the atmosphere thick and vibrant. Northstars karaoke in the second intermission had the fans on their feet, torches on and rink lights off, singing along to Sweet Caroline, boosting the vibe in the building ahead of the third period.
 
Both teams came out in the third period ready to play, with end-to-end action. Both teams did their best to create opportunities to score, and there were a number of penalties both ways.
 
Northstars Daniel Berno would secure the next goal of the game, putting the home team ahead 4-1 with his short-handed empty-net goal, which got the crowd on their feet once again.
 
“It was huge for us tonight; it’s always nice to get a win against the Brave for the team's sake and standings sake. It’s a good confidence boost and we’re on a roll now, we’ve just got to keep going,” shared Berno on the win.
 
Canberra netted one last goal in the final 30 seconds of the game, giving the visitors their second goal, but the home team were the 4-2 victors.
 
“It’s a big challenge and we played well positionally and as a team,” Drolet continued, “It feels good to win like that. We felt a lot more disciplined tonight, and it’s nice to keep the game as 5 on 5.”
 
Assistant coach Dave Ferrari shared, “Even though they’re low in our division we know they’re going to be there at the end of the season. It feels good no matter how we do it, to get the three points and tonight we did it.”
 
“We used our whole bench tonight playing five-on-five and discipline is key.” Ferrari continued, “Not just staying out of the box, but staying disciplined to our structure. Our neutral zone has been really good because we’ve been disciplined about not getting out of position.”
 
“ (Daniel) Berno, with two goals, continues to be a difference maker in the team, and Francis (Drolet), missing both his linemates tonight, was able to come out and do his job, shut down the other team’s line and be hard to play against.”
 
“Tonight, we had really good structure,” Manwarring continued, “and we have played that way for the last couple of weeks. I think we’re finding a system that we can play, and that’s a credit to our coaches for setting the standard. We’ve bought into that, and that’s why we’re rolling again because all our guys are playing, and they’re playing with confidence.”
 
Sunday night, Francis Drolet opened the scoring for the Northstars, who made the road trip down to Sydney to face off against the Bears. This would be their lone goal of the game. Newcastle went to the first break with a 1-0 lead.
 
With four unanswered goals in the second period scored by Sydney Bears’ the Northstars fell behind 4-1 going into the second break.
 
The third period saw the Northstars unable to capitalise on their opportunities, with another two goals scored by the Sydney Bears’ to secure the win for the home team, 1-6, against the visiting Newcastle team.
 
“It’s a long hockey season, it’s not our best game, and tonight we weren’t ready to go on a back-to-back for one of our first double headers in a while, ” Shared Noble on Sunday’s clash, “we weren’t mentally or physically ready to play at the level we needed to, for 60 minutes.”
 
“Our penalty kill is still strong, and we weren’t with it physically or mentally tonight for what we needed to do. It’s a good league whether you’re playing the Bears, Central Coast, or Brisbane. They’re all good teams, and we have to be ready to go, and we weren’t tonight.”
 
“One loss or one win doesn’t change what you’re trying to do for the end result. That goal is to get to Melbourne. To be the first seed in our conference, it is pretty simple.”
 
“We will get back to work this week. It’s just one loss. It wasn’t a good night for us, but we had more time to go. Nobody said you weren’t going to lose a hockey game, and quite frankly, it’s good for us to have some adversity. The truth is, we get up tomorrow morning, and we go back to work. Regardless of the win or loss, you return and do it again.”
 
Northstars return home with 3 points from the weekend and look ahead to their trip to Perth, where they will play on the 1^st and 2^nd of June.
 
Northstars will return to Newcastle on Saturday, June 8th, vs Melbourne Ice and Sunday, June 9^th, vs Perth Thunder. Get your tickets from northstars.thundertix.com