Northstars split weekend on the road & at home
The Northstars had a split weekend, defeating Canberra in Canberra on Saturday night 6-2. And going to shoot out against the Sydney Ice Dogs, going down 5-6 on Sunday night.
Saturday night is the first time the Northstars have won in Canberra since 2017, so for the fans and players, it was a big milestone, and many referred to it as “the curse is broken.”
Sunday night saw Assistant Captain and local veteran Patrick Nadin hit his 200th AIHL game.
Assistant Coach Dave Ferrari shared his thoughts on the Canberra win: “I thought we did a lot of good things on the small ice as far as the neutral zone and being hard to play against. Our powerplay really worked well and the guys were really clinical with it. While we didn’t score at times, they just really stuck the dagger in the brave by keeping the puck and having them on their heels which was the most impressive part of the game.”
Head Coach Kevin Noble shared, “I think there are some good learning lessons from this game. We battled back and put ourselves in a position to win a game, but tonight was a lot of individual errors, lost battles and individually got critical points of the game wrong. We weren’t good enough game management-wise, and that’s why, from a mindset side, we started the game well, but then the second period was just awful.”
In regards to next weekend against the mustangs, Noble shared “Next weekend is bigger, they’re a good hockey club. We have to tighten up individually and structurally and avoid the lapses that cost us (goals against).”
Assistant captain Francis Drolet shared his thoughts on the game: “we made a lot of mistakes tonight, we can’t let one guy walk through three guys and score, so we need to avoid mistakes like that. I think we ran out of gas a little bit and we were short a few guys, with some putting in a lot of extra minutes, so we need to control the energy a bit more.”
Drolet shared his thoughts on Pat Nadin reaching 200 points and scoring two crucial goals on Sunday night, “Pat is an all team guy. Everybody loves him, and he works hard, shows up every time. Having his family here and seeing him score two big goals for us was great. There’s nothing bad to say about him.”
Both images attached taken by Jess Fuller.
The Northstars have two big games at home this weekend:
Saturday May 4th against defending champions the Melbourne Mustangs. Puck drop 5pm.
Sunday May 5th against the Sydney Bears. Puck drop 4pm.
Tickets available at Northstars.thundertix.com
We are selling out every game, there are limited seats left, with mainly standing available for both days.
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