Newcastle North Stars join CBR Brave in Grand Final

Defending Goodall Cup Champions, the Newcastle North Stars defeated Perth Thunder in the second semi-final game of the weekend with a 3 – 2 win to clinch the last spot in the 2016 AIHL Final.

In a largely defensive game, the Perth Thunder seemingly missed some opportunities to take control of the puck and the Newcastle North Stars capitalized these mistakes at the O’Brien Group Arena.

“What we've done is given ourselves an opportunity to defend our championship,” said North Stars Head Coach Andrew Petrie.

“We're confident, we've been confident for the last four weeks, we've got everyone we need where we need them to give ourselves the best chance at victory.”

The score was opened by Thunder’s Andrew Cox six minutes into the game: Dayne Davis blocked a slap shot from Michael Dorr, and Cox swooped in, knocking the puck right out of Davis’ gloves.

Another six minutes later and the North Stars evened the score by Scott Swiston bringing up the puck along the right side of the rink and placing a slap shot to the back of the net. Swiston’s end-to-end skate help to pick up the energy at the rink.

With the tactics of both teams more defensively orientated in the second period, a break in tempo finally came when Benjamin Breault added to Perth’s goal tally 2-1. Jessyko Bernard passed from the right to Breault at centre who successfully got a wrist shot passed North Stars’ Davis.

Thunder’s Head Coach David Kenway, was disappointed with the end result, but thought both teams were evenly matched.

“We always have been a very defensive team, we try to sort of protect the keeper, stay defensively and keep everything out, and then let our forwards get their breaks every so often, it's just one of those things,” said Kenway.

“You're always disappointed with a loss, it was a tough game, both teams very evenly matched, you kind of knew it was going to come down to a little lapse, unfortunately we had the lapse, and they capitalised on it.”

The third period shifted between both scoring zones evenly, but it was the North Stars’ Swiston who tapped the puck passed Thomas Heemskerk to make the score 2-2, after a pass from Josh Harris at the 7:35 mark.

As scores remained tied at the end of regulation, AIHL fans were again treated to another overtime semi-final. Settling into a rhythm early, the golden goal came 10 minutes in with Hamish Powell tapping the puck past Heemskerk whilst he was momentarily distracted, facing another direction. It was a costly mistake for the Thunder, by an otherwise solid goaltender with .92 goal save percentage going into the Finals.

North Stars’ Andrew Petrie was very pleased with how the game went, but acknowledged that luck played a part.

“We adhered to systems, we're very patient, what you can't do with Perth Thunder is rush them, because they're a counter attack team and they'll catch you on the counter attack, and they did get us a couple of times,” said Petrie.

“That's our fifth game against them, they've all been one-goal games that have gone right down to the wire and could've gone either way, and tonight could've gone either way too. We're not so full of ourselves that we can't see that possibility as well. We got lucky, we'll hopefully get lucky again tomorrow.”

However, judging from the CBR Brave’s high tempo performance in their successful semi-final, the North Stars will need to bring more than luck to retain the Goodall Cup.

The Newcastle North Stars will face off against the CBR Brave in the Grand Final decider on Sunday at 3pm.