Andrew Cox scored twice and goalie Peter Di Salvo recorded his second shutout to give the Perth Thunder a 5-0 win against the Sydney Ice Dogs at Liverpool on Sunday.
The Thunder’s undefeated run now sits at six after defeating the North Stars and Ice Dogs over the weekend, dominating Sydney with 44 shots on goal compared to a season-low 11 from the home team.
“We’ve had a great start to the season going 6-0 so we’re pretty happy with a lot of work to do and a lot of games left to win,” Perth forward Luke Judson said. “We came out pretty hard and obviously the results are what we wanted.”
Following a successful penalty kill, Toni Kluuskeri got the puck from Andrew Cox and beat goalie Matthew Grogan for his third goal of the season to kick off the scoring two-and-a-half minutes from the end of the first period.
Sydney had three shots through the opening period even with two power plays, but Perth had the better of the opportunities, dominating puck possession even on the kill.
The Ice Dogs’ Dávid Harmati created time and space on the ice, bringing life to the Ice Dogs power play but was unable to find support to finish his strong play.
Perth’s second goal of the night came midway through the second with a deceiving shot from Jonathon Bremner at the point dropping to beat Grogan.
Meanwhile, the Ice Dogs were unable to sustain any continuous offensive zone-time.
Ice Dogs' coach Anders Jespersen changed the lines between periods, looking to invigorate some scoring from the Sydney side, who are a league low -37 in goals differential, having only scored four goals this season.
“We need more goals,” Jespersen said bluntly. “We’ve been trying to build each line and find that chemistry in practice but it didn’t work out well for us today.”
Andrew Cox scored within two minutes of the start of the third into an open net, catching Grogan sliding across the crease.
A bad bounce off the boards almost scored with Thunder goalie Di Salvo caught out of the crease making a quick dive to prevent the goal.
The Sydney Ice Dogs perked up with several scoring chances in the third period but Di Salvo kept it scoreless with quick saves in a goalmouth scramble after losing his glove and key saves against Adam Kimbley and Sean Hamilton.
Eight man-advantage penalties from the Ice Dogs gave the Thunder ample opportunity to put their special teams into action with Toni Kluuskeri and Andrew Cox both scoring on the power play for their second goals of the night in the 5-0 win.
“We’ve been working a fair bit on the power play,” coach Dave Kenway said. “We made a few minor adjustments to it but the boys are starting to gel and they’ve been working on it quite hard and it’s starting to prove successful.”
A frustrated Sean Hamilton took four penalties in the game for Sydney with three in the third period.
The Ice Dogs played without defencemen Jarrod Smith following a late game misconduct against the Bears on Saturday.
“Our goalie Matt played really well,” coach Jesperson said. “He tried to keep us in the game as long as possible. It was a tough game and Perth were much better than us.”
Eight Thunder players were on the board with a point in the game with goals coming from three different players to highlight the scoring depth of the team.
“I’m quite happy with having the scoring across the lines” coach Kenway said. “Everybody is putting in an effort and to have that secondary local scoring is really important.”
Perth Thunder remains undefeated and will face the Sydney Bears in a double-header at home next weekend. The Sydney Ice Dogs will look for their first win of the season this Sunday against the Adelaide Adrenaline in Liverpool with new import Kevin Harvey set to debut.