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HELLYER LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Thunder	5	4	1	12
Ice	3	3	0	9
Bears	4	3	1	9
Mustangs	2	1	1	3
Ice Dogs	5	1	4	3

RURAK LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Northstars	3	3	0	9
Lightning	5	2	3	6
Adrenaline	2	1	1	3
Brave	5	1	4	3
Rhinos	4	0	4	0

SCORING LEADERS

Jeremiah
Addison (PER)

Player	Points
Aiden Wagner (NNS)	16
Wehebe Darge (NNS)	12
francis Drolet (NNS)	12
Zane Jones (PER)	11

GOALIE LEADERS

N Novysedlak (BRE)

1.000

Goalie	SV%
Tatsunoshin Ishida (MIC)	.952
Rhys Pelliccione (PER)	.950
Leo Bertein (PER)	.937
Jeremy Friederich (ADE)	.912

Mustangs gallop past North Stars

Sunday, August 24, 2014 - Submitted by Luke Robbs

The Melbourne Mustangs continue their charge towards the AIHL minor premiership with a convincing 4-1 win over Newcastle North Stars at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on Saturday evening.

The visitors continued to push towards taking the H Newman Reid trophy into their first finals experience, taking the chances presented to them and looking comfortable as Newcastle tried to end the season on a winning note.

In a match dominated by physicality and goalmouth action the Mustangs’ goaltender Michael James stood firm making some crucial blocks to help the Melbournians to victory.

Mustangs coach Brad Vigon was happy to get the win despite it being a less than crucial match.

“Sometimes these games can be tough because it didn’t mean a whole lot as we know we’re in the finals,” said Vigon. “You worry a little bit about the mental state of the guys going in and what they’re thinking. But we tried to prepare like any other game and stick to our game plan.”

Victory over the North Stars combined with Perth Thunders’ 5-4 shoot-out victory over the Melbourne Ice moves the Mustangs into outright first on the AIHL ladder.

Vigon credited the win to a solid team performance but had individual praise for his goaltender.

“I thought as a group we were pretty solid across the board,” Vigon said. “Mikey James was absolutely fantastic; he had his eye and was tracking the puck really well. Sometimes you just play from the goalie out and we did that tonight.”

The Mustangs forced Newcastle keeper Josh Broekmann to make some early saves as they comfortably settled into the match from the get-go.

The North Stars struggled to get the puck out of their own half and the Mustangs broke through thanks to power play goal from import forward Pat O’Kane to make it 1-0.

Forward Adrian Nash doubled the Mustangs advantage with just over a minute remaining in the first after cheeky flick snuck past Broekmann.

The second period opened with some speedy end to end play and classy goaltending by both keepers whose performances stood out on the ice.

The North Stars to their credit continued to fight and the home-crowd roared when Matt Wertini made it 2-1 with ten minutes remaining in the second.

The joy however was short lived as the Mustangs regained their two goal lead just minutes later through youngster Matt Stringer.

Melbourne sealed the victory early in the final period when 16 year-old Ethan Cornford scored his first goal in the AIHL to make the final score 4-1.

North Stars coach Garry Doré was disappointed they couldn’t secure the win in their final match of the season.

“We really wanted to win in front of the home crowd in the last match of the season and finish on a high note”, Doré said. “But the Mustangs played a really solid game and their defence really shut us down well. They’re preparing for the play-offs now and good luck to them.”

Despite the loss the Newcastle fans were treated to a great evening of entertainment which included Beau Taylor chopping off his hair for the ‘Locks of Love’ charity and defencemen Rob Starke and John Kennedy taking on the ice bucket challenge.

This season is the first time since 2003 that the North Stars have failed to feature in the finals series which the Newcastle coach attributes to a season of mixed fortunes.

“We didn’t have a lot of consistency at the start of the season and we had a number of players who came in late’,” Doré said. “Then we settled and got some good consistency, but had some weird luck along the way.”

“If something was going to go weird or wrong, whether it be luck or our own doing, it did and that just sums up our season. But any year you can play ice hockey is a great year, win, lose or draw.”

The Mustangs fortune was still in their hands as they took on the Sydney Ice Dogs in their final match before the play-offs.

“We’ve still got some work to do tomorrow and we need to focus on some little things that we want to make sure we’re doing in the finals,” Vigon said. “We’re going to go out there and play our game plan and we know what we need to look out for them. But I’m hoping for no suspension and no injures for the most part.”

The Mustangs claimed top spot on the ladder and it will see them face the Ice Dogs again in the play-offs, but the Mustangs coach isn’t concerned with who his team has to face.

“It doesn’t matter who we play in the finals, you’ve got to play somebody”, said Vigon. “The Ice Dogs are a pretty tough team but I think we match up well against anybody. Some whoever we have to play we’ll just play our style of hockey and see how we go.”

The Mustangs will travelled to the Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink to take on the Ice Dogs on Sunday in both team’s final match of the regular season.

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