This was a big weekend for the Perth Thunder. We knew we would be playing against a strong opponent in the Newcastle North Stars, having just played a hard fought game with them the previous weekend in Newcastle. It was also the first game of a new Forney-less era for our team. Michael was a great player and we knew that we would have to modify our game and make sure that we worked hard, and never took a shift off. It was really our first game with all the new faces in the lineup together, we wanted to prove that the Thunder are really a team to be taken seriously in this tight AIHL playoff race.

With Saturday Sunday games, a couple of the other imports and I, Dan Clarke and Brian Berger took the opportunity of a Friday evening off to go out and explore some of Perth. We headed down to the city and it was definitely pretty cool to see how busy it was at the restaurants and bars as people headed out into the city after work.  We headed home and made sure we got a good night’s sleep before the weekend.

Saturday morning the boys relaxed and watched some television, as well as caught up with some friends from home in Canada/America. With a 12 hour time difference from home, keeping in contact with friends and family has to be somewhat strategic.  Next, we took turns going for a spin on the house bike. I chose to head down to the area near Hilary’s Boat Harbour. It’s a 10 minute bike ride from our house and you can’t really beat biking along the coast in the sunshine with your iPod in. Our resident chefs’, Berger and Clarke whipped up some pasta and I supplied some country music as we ate our pregame meal.

The game itself was again a hard fought game. We managed to come out on top 6-2, and it took a strong effort from everyone in the lineup, top to bottom. After the game we headed out for our team meal and shared some laughs with the boys.

On Sunday the boys slept in, ate some breakfast and relaxed as Kevin Darcy, our other roommate, busted out some statistics homework for an online class. I generally try to steer clear of anything resembling mathematics so Berger made sure to give him some assistance.

Before we knew it we were off the rink for the second game of the weekend. It was a tight back and forth game and we ended up coming up short 3-2. Two wins would’ve been excellent, but we have to give the North Stars credit, as they played a strong game on the road.

We were all pretty tired after the busy weekend, and we opted to spend some quality roommate time and watch a movie before calling it a night. Our next test will come against Melbourne on the road, and we will have to make sure we are ready for another big weekend.