Ice seal perfect weekend over Adrenaline

The Ice return to Melbourne with a full six points after beating the Adelaide Adrenaline 3-1 at the Adelaide ArenA on Sunday afternoon.

Melbourne were without Matt Armstrong for the game due to gastro, but still managed to put enough goals on the board to take the win.

Melbourne Ice assistant coach Steve Laforet was ecstatic about getting the win without their leading points scorer.

“Losing your top scorer for gastro and our goalie getting injured there was hard, but a lot of guys stepped up and answered the questions,” Laforet said.

Melbourne Ice goaltender Alex Leclerc was outstanding again, making 38 saves as the Adrenaline peppered the Ice’s goal.

He said that it was all about the effort of the team in defence and in front of him that gave Melbourne the win.

“Even if it’s forty shots, one guy plays well in front of you it’s motivating and at the end of the night it’s the team that has more points on the board,” Leclerc said. “It was a great team effort - we arrived with a certain mindset, we played with it, we won with it and that’s the outcome.”

Laforet reiterated how vital their defence was to get the win.

“Defence all year  has been a real attribute for us,” Laforet said. “We’ve been working real hard, keeping all the teams outside and that’s really working for us. It’s back to the drawing board again and working on Tuesday and Thursday for Perth.”

Both sides lacked intensity in the first period as they struggled to take very many shots and test the goalies.

Melbourne Ice’s Paul Kurceba hit the post at the end of a rather uneventful opening to the match.

The period lacked the fire and big hits of the game the previous night, with only the single penalty being handed out to Adelaide’s Luke Harding, although the Ice could not capitalise with the extra man.

Adelaide looked the better team at the start of the middle frame with most of the puck possession, but when import Jonathan Boxill was given a two minute penalty for hooking the pressure was alleviated.

Melbourne took advantage of the extra player with Tommy Powell shoveling a loose puck past Adelaide goalie Charlie Smart to give the Ice a 1-0 lead.

The Adrenaline continued to put pressure on the Melbourne Ice defence, leading the shot tally for the period 17-6. However they were unable to convert it on the scoreboard.

Austin Mckenzie silenced the home crowd early in the third when he doubled the Ice’s lead, getting past Adelaide’s defence and slotting the puck over Smart’s right pad.

When the Adrenaline pulled Smart from goal with three minutes left to play Kory Helowka and Jonathan Boxill stepped up to reduce the deficit to one.

In the final minutes of the match Adelaide were unable to pierce Leclerc’s goal line, as he absorbed all shots the Adrenaline had on goal, including a glove save on a late Tyler grove shot.

An empty netter from Tim Johansson sealed the win for the Ice and ended a frustrating weekend for the Adrenaline.

Adrenaline head coach Ryan O’Handley thought Adelaide played a good game, but were unable to convert some of their chances against a red-hot goaltender.

“We outshot them something like 40 to 25,” O’Handley said. “Forty plus shots for one goal and that was with the goalie pulled so credit to them, they collapsed low in front of the net, and their goalie played a really good game today.”

“We’ve got to find ways to score goals because you’re not going to win too many games if you can’t get more than two goals. We played a solid game, but until we figure out how to score we’re not going to win these games.”