North Stars top Bears

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The Newcastle North Stars have defeated the Sydney Bears 6-4 in a back and forth game of hockey at the Penrith Ice Palace on Saturday night.
 
The North Stars got out to an early lead before the Bears took a two-goal lead, finished off with four straight goals to the visiting Novocastrians.
 
Early possession and offensive zone dominance was actually held by the Bears, but they once again found themselves undone by ill-discipline with North Stars Captain Robert Malloy to taking advantage, slotting home the opening goal of the game.
 
Newcastle’s lead was soon nullified though as Brian Funes’ shot from the blue line less than a minute later hit the Dayne Davis’ net; the Bears forwards providing a great screen in front of net.
 
The North Stars made it two from two on the power play shortly after via recently arrived import forward Josh Harris netting after sustained pressure on Anthony Kimlin’s net to see his team head into the break 2-1 up.
 
High intensity and physical hockey was the order of the day as the second period commenced, with both teams coming out strong.
 
It was the home team that was able to capitalise five minutes in, with Captain Michael Schlamp netting his second goal of the season from the left wing and equalising the game.
 
Canadian import Vandenburg soon netted the go-ahead goal for the Bears on a power play after Brandon Greenside found himself called for hooking.
 
A speculative dump-and-chase by the Sydney team soon proved anything but speculative as the rebound of the back boards provided a perfect opportunity for Geoff Irwin to slot the puck past Davis in the Newcastle net, giving the home side a 4-2 lead.
 
However, with just nine seconds remaining in the second, Greenside made a victim of Vandenburg as his shot bounced off the hapless Bears player’s back and into the goal sending the teams to the final break at a tense 4-3 score line to the Bears.
 
Greenside continued his five-point night, adding his second goal, racing end-to-end before slotting the puck over Kimlin’s left shoulder.
 
AIHL scoring leader Connor McLaughlin made his presence known on the scoreboard, slotting the eventual game-winning goal after the North Stars withstood plenty of Bear offensive pressure with the Sydney-siders still searching for their first regular time win of the year.
 
Newcastle North Stars Coach Andrew Petrie pointed out that this was spoken about after the second period.
 
“I challenged the boys after the second period to lift and they gave me that and a little bit more; I was very impressed,” Petrie.
 
The tension briefly boiled over as the third period wore on, multiple players seeing time in the penalty box as the tight score line saw the competitiveness of both teams on full display.
 
In fact, it was just this physicality that led to the North Stars’ sixth goal.
 
With one of Newcastle’s players slow to his feet and equally slow to the bench after an open-ice hit by the Bears power play unit, McLaughlin was in the perfect place for a counter-attack when he eventually got onto the ice.
 
Kimlin initially saved the one-on-one but McLaughlin was able to pick up the rebound and slot home to bring the score out to 6-4.
 
Try as they might, the Sydney Bears were unable to capitalise in the final five minutes, despite plenty of powerplay time, with Davis proving dominant in the third period.
 
Petrie was particularly impressed with his penalty-kill units.
 
“I think we gave seven penalty kills including two or three right at the end of the game [and] that included a five-on-three and our guys just ran the systems beautifully,” Petrie said. “You give guys a simple system and they’ve got a high skill level and you want good things – that’s what we got.”
 
Meanwhile, Sydney Bears’ Assistant Coach Steve Austin was disappointed to see his side lose out again.
 
“I feel bad for the guys because they put the effort in, just the puck doesn’t bounce our way sometimes – what are you going to do?” Austin said. “We were leading and then we lost our blades a bit, but we’re going to keep our chins up. It’s a long season; we’re going to come away with a few wins yet. We’ll regroup; we’ll be back next game.”
 
Next Saturday, the Bears travel out to Liverpool to play the Sydney Ice Dogs in the third Battle of Sydney, before heading to Canberra to face the Brave, while the North Stars visit the Brave on Saturday before hosting the Ice Dogs on Sunday.