North Stars maul Bears to stay alive

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The Newcastle North Stars dispatched the Sydney Bears 6-2 at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
 
While the injury depleted Bears fought valiantly, causing trouble for Newcastle goaltender Harrison May, the North Stars rarely looked in serious trouble.
 
Victory over the Bears coupled with Saturday’s 3-2 victory over the Perth Thunder means the North Stars ambition of featuring in the 2014 AIHL Finals presented by Air Canada remains alive.
 
After stealing victory against the Thunder with only seven seconds remaining, Canadian import Chris Wilson was again the star for Newcastle scoring a hat-trick and thrilling the Newcastle faithful.
 
North Star coach Garry Doré was happy with how his team controlled the game and praised Wilson’s influential performance.
 
“He’s a great hockey player we always knew that,” said Doré. “We brought him here to score goals and he had a funny first half of the season but he’s playing with Beau Taylor now and they’ve really got it together. Now he’s scoring and I hope he gets better and better from here on in.”
 
It was Wilson who started the scoring during a power play skating across the front of goal and flicking the puck past Bears keeper Daniel Palmkvist who returned from a hip injury against the North Stars.
 
North Stars second goal also came during a power play with Wilson this time lending an assist to fellow Canadian import Cody Danberg who looked equally dangerous on the ice.
 
The Bears did not shrink away and got one back just two minutes later scoring their own power play goal through veteran forward Adrian Esposito.
 
In an action packed second period Wilson and Danberg scored their second goals on either side of a strike from Bears veteran Brett Nelson-Bond to make the score 4-2.
 
Sydney continued to push forward and were denied by the goal post in the closing stages of the second before Matt Wetini gave the Novocastrians a comfortable 5-2 lead following a slick passing play with Brian Bales.
 
Palmkvist re-aggravated his hip injury during the second period and was replace by Luke Read in the third. Read looked comfortable between the sticks making 19 saves in the final period
 
However he couldn’t prevent Wilson sealing the 6-2 victory while the Bears were left short-handed after alternate captain Spencer Austin was sent to the penalty box for tripping.
 
Bears coach Vlad Rubes said he knew they were in for a tough game but was happy with his team’s effort and resilience.
 
“We expected a tough a game and we had only three defencemen today,” Rubes said. “We had some new guys who had never played in the league. But the objective was to play a tough game and try to make it difficult for them.”
 
Rubes was encouraged by the Bears play in the final period and is looking for a similar effort from his team in their final match of the season.
 
“We have a week off next week and hopefully we will get some guys back from injury,” Rubes said. “Our only game left is against Canberra and they’re going to make the finals but we’re just going to try and make it difficult for them and build some confidence in our young guys for next year.”
 
Results continue to go the way of the North Stars with the Adelaide Adrenaline and the Sydney Ice Dogs both suffering defeats on Sunday giving Newcastle a competitive chance to make the finals.
 
But the North Stars coach wants his team to focus on their preparation and not worry about what other teams are doing.
 
“Ultimately the result we need is for us to win every game,” Doré said. “If we win every game we’ll finish on top of Adelaide, as for the Ice Dogs they need to lose a couple. But we’re taking it a game by game and looking to play as good as tonight, if not better, and then we’ll worry about what other teams do.”
 
The North Stars are facing a tough double header in Melbourne next weekend against the Mustangs on Saturday and the Ice on Sunday, but Doré is confident his team is playing well enough to come home with the points
 
“We’ll go down there and just play controlled hockey like we did tonight,” said Doré. “We’ve got two great lines right now and a third that’s supporting them really well, the defence is playing well and the goalie’s making some good saves.  We’re going down there with a strong team and it’s not unthinkable that we could knock off the Mustangs and the Ice in the same weekend.”
 
Following their double header in Melbourne the North Stars will again play the Mustangs in their final home game of the season. Meanwhile the Bears will enjoy a weekend off and play their last match of the season against the CBR Brave at the Sydney Ice Arena the following Saturday.