Drolét hat trick on Ice as Northstars take AIHL lead
The Newcastle Northstars have taken the lead in the Australian Ice Hockey League after their 9-3 win over the Melbourne Ice at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on Saturday night.
Canadian Francis Drolét lead the team scoring with 3 goals and 2 assists, with line-mates Daniel Berno and Richard Tesarik picking up 4 points each.
The victory was another come-from-behind effort as the Melbourne Ice struck first, and at one point in the first period lead the Northstars 3 goals to 1, belying their last position on the ladder for the 2022 season.
The second period saw a quick reversal, with the Northstars scoring five consecutive goals on Melbourne to add to their late 1st period goal to lead 7-3 going into the third period.
The Northstars continued to carry the play through the third period, possessing the puck for long periods and picking up an additional two goals to finish the game with a 9-3 victory.
Following the weekend’s results, the Northstars hold 30 competition points from 11 games, and the CBR Brave hold 28 competition points from 12 games played.
The winning streak and renewed interest in the sport following two years of interruption during the pandemic has attracted record crowds, with an atmosphere rivalling league finals throughout the Northstars home games. Come from behind wins were certainly providing motivation for the locals to cheer their team to victory.
Assistant coach Amelia Matherson acknowledged the slow starts were a problem for the Northstars.
“We started slow tonight, and Melbourne Ice came out hard.
“They rocked us a little in the first period, but we had a good reset in the period break and played Northstars Hockey in the 2nd period.”
Bench coach Kevin Noble kept the message positive in the change room during the first break, and the fresh start reinvigorated the team, along with Charlie Smart relieving Ethan Spelde for the second period in net. Smart kept a clean sheet, as did Spelde when he returned for the 3rd period to see out the game.
The slow starts have been a pattern for the Northstars in the 2022 season. Fortunately, it hasn’t hurt their results with only the one loss this season.
“It’s nice to have a reputation as a 3rd period team, but there will games when you’re too far behind to catch up,” said Matherson.
“We might change something like our pre-warmup in order to start our games better in the future.”
The Northstars travel to Sydney next to play the Ice Dogs at Macquarie on the 9th of July.
