With two hat tricks and a six point game from captain Greg Oddy, the Adelaide Adrenaline made easy work tearing apart the Melbourne Mustangs 10-0 at the IceArenA on Saturday, June 30.
Brett Liscomb - with a five point game – made an avalanche of goals, starting twelve seconds into the game unassisted and another short-handed late in the period.
But the belonged to Oddy and Wehebe Darge, both scoring hat tricks in their best games of the season.
Darge showed what the pre-season hype of his return was all about in an outstanding all-round display.
James Keane also found his mark with a third period goal and a three point game.
Belgium import Mitch Morgan made an immediate impact in his first game, with a three point game including the final goal of the night and his first in the AIHL.
The Adrenaline put 36 shots on net for their return of 10 goals, which is a far cry from the opening weekend against the Knights (two from 62).
Head Coach Ryan O’Handley had a game plan and his men delivered in relentless fashion
The game beyond doubt after an early second period goal through Darge (5-0), but the job was far from over in the most dedicated and disciplined performance seen at the IceArenA in a long time.
Adrenaline needed to make a statement after some recent lows within in the team, losing imports Dan Nicholls and Josef Rezek.
With an average display in Perth by club standards, and suspensions, something needed to fall right.
Sami Mantere for his first game back since 2010 and Mitch Morgan arriving from Belgium in the early hours of Friday morning just may have been the change in fortune they were looking for.
Despite the score line not all is doomed for the young Mustangs, who showed a lot of heart and spirit.
The Mustangs do get their fair share of the puck but are just unable to retain enough possession; it wasn’t until the third where they were able to retain the puck in Adrenaline’s zone.
Although the stats say otherwise the third period was their best period.
Not for shots on goal but pressure on the puck.
They worked hard along the boards, but gave the puck up too easily coming out of their own zone at times.
Adrenaline were very well structured and found themselves with open ice on too many occasions.