North Stars regain top spot over Ice

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The Newcastle North Stars have returned to the top of the table with a hard-fought 4-2 win over the Melbourne Ice at the Medibank Icehouse on Sunday night.
 
Although the Ice pulled even midway through the final period, a pair of goals to Scott Swiston including a late empty netter helped the North Stars claim all three points in a game of hockey that seemed to have it all.
 
North Stars coach Andrew Petrie felt it was an excellent game of hockey from both sides and a strong indication of the type of games we can expect in the final month of the AIHL season.
 
“I thought it was one of the better games of the season in terms of its tempo and the battle sense of it,” Petrie said. “Both teams were working very hard to win and preserve their position on the top of the ladder. I’d imagine as a spectator it was well worth the money.”
 
On the Ice side of things, coach Brent Laver said he was proud of his charges despite falling on the wrong side of the score line.
 
“We had a plan and I think we executed it really well,” Laver said. “I’m really proud of the boys because I think we were the better team so it is really disappointing.”
 
With two of the best defensive teams in the competition going head-to-head, a pair of early North Stars penalties gave the Ice a golden opportunity on a five-on-three power play, allowing Todd Graham to open the scoring with a top shelf snipe just over two-and-a-half minutes in.
 
Although the Ice had a couple of penalties to close out the period, the score remained 1-0 in the evenly matched stanza with 12 shots each.
 
The second was all the North Stars with 24 shots to 0 recorded for the period.
 
However, despite being unable to crack the Ice’s defence in a minute long five-on-three power play midway through the period, it took back-to-back power play opportunities for the North Stars to properly take advantage of run of play.
 
Luke Moffatt and Geordie Wudrick returned to their scoring ways, scoring power play goals just over a minute apart to give the North Stars the 2-1 lead at the final break.
 
In a more even final period, the Ice locked the scores at 2-all when Mitch Humphries scored off a scramble in the crease.
 
As both teams desperately fought for the win, the North Stars regained the lead when Scott Swiston claimed his first goal through another scramble, this time in front of Ice goalie Jaden Pine-Murphy, who had a huge night, saving 47 of 50 shots.
 
Unable to crack the North Stars’ defence, the Ice pulled Pine-Murphy, although Swiston scored on the empty net to seal the visitors 4-2 win.
 
Petrie said his side were at the point of their season that they were keen to continue working on the systems that had got them this far.
 
“We're just going to consolidate all the systems we’ve been putting in place and make sure it’s getting down to second nature at this stage of the season,” Petrie said. “We're quite happy with the direction that we’ve taken and where we’re going so we’ll just continue on that road.”
 
With all goals except for the empty netter coming on a power play, Ice coach Brent Laver said taking eight penalties to four ruined the flow of the game.
 
“[Penalties] throw everything out,” Laver said. “You have to kill it off before you can get back to business. It puts a lot of pressure on your penalty kill guys, which I thought were unbelievable tonight. Motivation-wise, the pleasing thing was that the boys just dug deep but sometimes you’ve got to beat more than the opposition.”
 
However, Laver also feels this weekend shows that the North Stars are beatable.
 
“They’re gettable; the Mustangs showed us that yesterday,” Laver said. “It’s really tight at the top and I think everyone knows that. Some say it’s the beauty, some say it’s the curse of having a one-weekend finals series is that anyone can play two good games and go away with the Cup.”
 
In first place with a month remaining in the season, Petrie said it would be interesting to see the final standings with seven teams still in contention for the top four.
 
”Hockey’s a strange game; a lot of weird things can happen,” Petrie said. “I thought the Mustangs last night were phenomenal; they played well, are a well-oiled machine and they could even go on a run and grab that fourth spot. I’d expect the Ice to be there, ourselves, quite probably the Perth Thunder and then it’s a bit of a lottery for that fourth spot.”
 
Next weekend, the North Stars visit the Bears on Saturday, before hosting the Ice Dogs on Sunday, while the Ice have next weekend off before a trip to NSW on the weekend of August 8-9.
 
Thank you to Shannon Knaus for performing the interviews with both coaches for this story.