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HELLYER LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Ice	3	3	0	9
Thunder	4	3	1	9
Mustangs	1	1	0	3
Bears	2	1	1	3
Ice Dogs	3	0	3	0

RURAK LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Northstars	3	3	0	9
Adrenaline	1	1	0	3
Brave	4	1	3	3
Lightning	4	1	3	3
Rhinos	3	0	3	0

SCORING LEADERS

Aiden
Wagner (NNS)

Player	Points
Jeremiah Addison (PER)	14
Wehebe Darge (NNS)	12
francis Drolet (NNS)	12
Beau Taylor (NNS)	10

GOALIE LEADERS

N Novysedlak (BRE)

1.000

Goalie	SV%
Tatsunoshin Ishida (MIC)	.952
Rhys Pelliccione (PER)	.950
Leo Bertein (PER)	.912
Jeremy Friederich (ADE)	.912

North Stars shine cracks the Ice

Sunday, June 15, 2014 - Submitted by Luke Robbs

The Newcastle North Stars have recaptured the form that saw them reach the 2013 AIHL final with an impressive 7-4 victory over the Melbourne Ice at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The win is the North Stars third win in a row and sees them move to fourth on the AIHL ladder for the first time this season.

Victory over the Ice coupled with last weekend’s win over the Melbourne Mustangs has helped the North Stars turn around their slow start to the season.

North Stars coach Garry Doré said he was very happy with the North Stars second home victory of the season.

“We’re playing really well,” Doré said. “We knew we were in for a tough game, the Ice are a really hard opposition.”

Doré praised the slick performances of his rampant imports and suggested Brian Bales was the final piece to the North Stars puzzle.

“Brian Bales is just a class act,” Doré said. “He’s of the same calibre as Cody Danberg and Chris Wilson and amplifies what they’re all about. He got four assists tonight and he’s setting up a lot of goals for us.”

The North Stars dominated play from the opening puck drop and alternate captain John Kennedy Jr.’s slap shot goal from the blue line within the first five minutes set the tone for the first two periods.

Canadian import Chris Wilson had an impressive showing for the North Stars and the agile forward scored two of his three goals in the opening period.

The North Stars continued to take advantage of some wayward passing from the Ice and goals to Cody Danberg and defencemen Jayson Chalker gave Newcastle a 5-0 advantage by the end of the second period.

With the game slipping out of their control, the Ice had to start the third quickly and a five-on-three advantage halfway through the final period saw a pair of strikes through Matt Armstrong and Austin McKenzie, who were the standouts for the visitors.

However, this was the North Stars night with youngster Hayden Sheard claiming his first AIHL goal in his fourth game before Wilson scored his third, restoring the five-goal advantage.

While Scott Corbett and Austin McKenzie’s second reduced the deficit to three, the goals were little more than consolation goals for the battered Melbournians.

Ice coach Brent Laver said the result was disappointing but to win the final period was an encouraging sign.

“I thought we started okay but a couple of bad bounces put us behind the eight ball,” said Laver. “In the second intermission we asked the boys to come out and win the third period to take that momentum into tomorrow’s game.”

Laver said his team’s poor finishing in front of goal was a major factor in their loss.

“We wanted to crash the net and put a lot of shots on their goalie early,” said Laver. “We ended up with 35 shots out there so we’re happy with that, but we need to start burying our rebounds.”

North Stars coach Doré said they went into the game with a similar game plan and pressured the Ice’s goal.

“We went out hard and wanted to get them on back foot,” said Doré. “We knew they were coming off a big loss and if we got a couple quick ones we would be able to keep the pressure on. Their defence started going backwards early so we just started to shoot.”

The North Stars will now turn their attention to next weekend’s home double header where they host the Perth Thunder on Saturday night and the Sydney Ice Dogs on Sunday for the rescheduled fixture.

Meanwhile, the Melbourne Ice rebounded against the Bears in Sydney on Sunday before preparing for a double header against the CBR Brave in Melbourne

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