Northstars take one point from weekend at home

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The Newcastle Northstars had a tough weekend at home, losing 1-7 to Melbourne Ice on Saturday night and 1-2 to Perth Thunder in overtime on Sunday night.
 
Despite a one-point weekend, Newcastle remain in the top spot of the Rurak conference, 9 points ahead of Canberra Brave and Brisbane Lightning.
 
Saturday 8^th June vs Melbourne Ice
A scoreless first and second period for the Northstars saw one of the weaker starts to a game for the locals, with Daniel Berno securing just one goal in the third period for the home team.
 
At the end of period one, the Northstars were trailing 0-3 to the visiting Melbourne Ice. The visitors extended their lead by one goal in period two, with the Northstars trailing 0-4 into the second intermission. Newcastle scored first in period three, but Melbourne would score three more times to win 1-7.
 
Period one went by fast with few whistles and 5v5 hockey, but a heavily penalised second and third period disrupted both teams' momentum, with injuries and players ejected from the game.
 
There was a quiet crowd at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium throughout the game, with players and fans looking to forget this one and move on to Sunday.  
 
Assistant Captain Francis Drolet reflected on the game sharing, “I think the positive today is just about getting through adversity, and how we answered a little bit more physical. We showed up in the second period, and we’re low on bodies, but if we compete, we’re in there with the best team.”
 
Drolet continued, “When you’re down a lot of guys, you’ve just got to stay with the system and got to work our best; there’s not much else we can do. We must try not to get down mentally because that won’t help. It’s a lot of mental battles, but that’s a big part of the game.”
 
Assistant coach David Ferrari reflected on Saturday's efforts, sharing, “The lesson, unfortunately, we had to learn was you’ve got to show up from the puck drop, and we gifted them that first 20 minutes and then just couldn’t recover.”
 
“The positives,” Ferrari continued, “was that there were many good things in the second period with our pushback. We don’t want to be taking penalties and running around, but we just had to put some life into the game, and I thought we did that really well.”
 
“We had some really good looks on the powerplay, and credit to them. They’re a really good team. We weren’t able to capitalise on those chances. A lot of guys have had to step up. We’ve got a thin line-up right now. We have guys playing more minutes than they should be, and they’re just making the most of it and getting that experience,” Ferrari finished.
 
Sunday vs Perth Thunder.
Newcastle came out firing on Sunday afternoon with speed and a steady pace against the visiting Perth team. With end-to-end opportunities on both sides, the period remained scoreless until the final 10 seconds. A snipe shot from the blue line saw Kyler Matthews getting the home team on the board going into the break with a powerplay goal.
 
Head coach Kevin Noble reflected on period one compared to Saturday night, “I think the first period was better tonight. We came ready to go, and we’re asking a lot of guys to step up and give us more than expected this season. We're generally doing a good job of that, but we’re not generating a lot offensively right now.”
 
Assistant Captain Francis Drolet was happy with how the team showed up tonight, “That first period, we came back, and we were first on the puck, we battled hard, and we had the momentum, which shows good team character.
 
“There were a lot of shots on goal tonight against Charlie; he kept us in that game, facing over 50 shots. He’s in top form right now, so it’s good to see.”
 
Smart was an incredible force between the pipes on Sunday night and faced 53 shots. Charlie Smart had a 0.962 save percentage, which is one of his personal best of the season so far.
 
 
Despite numerous opportunities to score, it took Perth Thunder until 1.42 minutes remaining in the second period to secure their short-handed goal, equalising the game going into the second intermission.
 
A scoreless third period took the game to overtime, and with 1.11mins left on the clock, Perth Thunder would score with a deflection to win the game 1-2.
 
 
Drolet reflected on the past three games against Perth, “They’re a good team, they’re a deep team. They’ve got good goalies, and when we come home, we always want to win in front of our fans. The fans were amazing tonight. We’re missing a bunch of guys, but we have our fans, and they’re like extra guys.”
 
Noble reflected on the struggles the Northstars have been facing going into this weekend, “We’re battling through a hard time right now. We’re getting a lot out of guys who have stepped up in the absence of other guys.”
 
“It was good energy, we had to get ourselves going a little bit today, it was a tough loss last night. The guys had to find some internal motivation today; I think we did that for the most part, and we were fortunate to get the point out of today.”
 
“As a coach, you can only motivate so much; they’ve got to find some internal motivation and accountability so that you can find ways to get better every day in practice, what you do off the ice, rest, recovery, and eating. It’s a tough stretch for us, but seeing them bounce back and compete tonight was encouraging.”
 
“I thought we played a good game, competed hard, showed up, and gave our best effort.”
 
Newcastle travel to Sydney on Saturday, 15th June, to face the Sydney Bears.
Newcastle plays at home on Sunday, 16th June, vs the Central Coast Rhinos.