North Stars fight back to beat Adrenaline

---

The Newcastle North Stars have fought back from an early 2-0 deficit to defeat the Adelaide Adrenaline 6-3 at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on Saturday night.
 
It was four unanswered goals in the second period, including three on the power play and the final two in just 18 seconds that inspired the North Stars to the win in front of a sell-out home crowd.
 
Adrenaline came out of the shed fighting, winning the first faceoff and looked to shock the North Stars.
 
With good defence from Adelaide, the North Stars couldn’t break through despite outshooting the visitors in the period.
 
Giving the North Stars no room, the Adelaide defenceman back-checking well, cutting off attacking plays and gave good service to their offensive weapons.
 
The game was very much about the goalkeepers with Adrenaline young gun Charlie Smart going up against the North Stars' Dayne Davis with great saves a feature of the contest.
 
However, a defensive breakdown saw the Adrenaline’s Wehebe Darge find the back of the net off a Grove pass, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead at the first break.
 
North Stars coach Andrew Petrie praised the Adrenaline’s defence in first period as being “exceptional and well organised”.
 
“They played a simple collapsed defence, tagging up on our forwards just over the blue line, and back-checking really hard which mean they took the space away from us where we usually get creative,” Petrie said. “Unfortunately rather than adapting to it, we kept trying to fight through it and we kept coughing up the puck.”
 
With a change up in the lines, the North Stars came out much stronger in the second period.
 
Adrenaline were still finding the puck and keeping it pinned away from the North Stars and it was with a quick shot from Jonathan Boxill early in the period doubled the visitors’ advantage.
 
It didn’t last long as the North Stars found their groove only 25 seconds later with Scott Swiston claiming a rebound goal after a strong passing play from league point scoring leaders Geordie Wudrick and Luke Moffatt.
 
The North Stars, buoyed by the goal, erased the lead with a Moffatt bullet from the blue line soon after.
 
With time almost elapsed in the second period and the teams increasingly well matched, Brian Bales gave the home side the lead for the first time in the match off another rebound, before only 18 seconds later Wudrick threw a wrist shot past Smart, flipping the two-goal advantage on the Adrenaline.
 
When Josef Rezek was the beneficiary of some strong Adrenaline pressure, the score was 4-3 with plenty of time left on the clock.
 
This was as close as the Adrenaline would get though as Bales and a Wudrick empty netter both scored their second goals close out the 6-3 win.
 
For Adrenaline coach Ryan O’Handley, the most troubling aspect was the his teams’ penalty kill, with the North Stars scoring four goals off seven power play opportunities.
 
“We have got to stay out of the penalty box,” O’Handley said. “We talk about it and talk about it and talk about it.  Until the guys buckle down and be disciplined, these are the kinds of results we are going to get against a team like Newcastle.”
 
“They got four power play goals tonight and that’s not good enough. Five-on-five we are a good team. If we stay out of the penalty box we can win it. We had a few breakaways in the third but we need to capitalise on them.”
 
The North Stars’ Petrie said he was pleased with the way the North Stars adapted in second period after being held scoreless in the first.
 
“We came out with a slightly different style in the second period and we improved,” Petrie said. “After the second period I congratulated them on being able to change. It’s not easy to get a group of people at the same time to do something differently to the way they have just done it. They are a great bunch of guys to work with; they are highly adaptable and I think they really showed that tonight.”
 
Next week, the North Stars take on the Thunder in Perth, while the Adrenaline host the Ice in Adelaide.