A third period comeback from the home side wasn’t enough as the Melbourne Ice defeated the Adelaide Adrenaline 4-3 in a tight encounter at Adelaide ArenA on Saturday night.

Melbourne Ice assistant coach Steve Laforet was impressed with the way his team held on for the win.

“We started really well in the first period, brought it over to the second period, and a few penalties cost us in the third so we gave them the door to walk through,” Laforet said. “We’ll try to alleviate that tomorrow.”

Although Adrenaline outshot the Ice 14-11 in the opening period, they went into the locker room at the first break down 3-0.

Melbourne Ice captain Lliam Webster said they wanted to come out early and get a good start to put pressure on Adelaide.

“We wanted to come out hard and keep our feet moving, play the body a lot and we were able to get some goals that way so it seemed to pay off,” he said.

The Ice had Mitchell Humphries to thank for their early lead, after he scored two goals and made an assist in the first.

Humphries opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal that trickled past Adelaide goalie, Charlie Smart’s left pad.

He added a second only minutes later, deflecting a shot from Thomas Powell into the net.

“He [Humphries] was our player of the game from inside the dressing room which was awesome,” Webster said. “He scored a couple of big goals, was in the game, was always on the puck the whole night so he was phenomenal.”

The third came in the final minute of the period with Humphries returning the favour and assisting Powell to extend Melbourne’s lead.

The Ice extended their lead early in the middle frame with Jason Baclig firing a slapshot from the slot into the back of the net.

Adrenaline Canadian import Kory Helowka gave the Adrenaline fans something to cheer about when he opened the scoring for the home side early in the third period with a rocket from the left wing.

Adelaide looked like a different side in the third with their shots starting to hit the target, heaping pressure on Melbourne’s defence as tempers flared between the two teams.

The Adrenaline came within two when Wehebe Darge cut the lead to two after a shot from Sean Greer rebounded off Ice goalie Alex Leclerc’s pad.

Tyler Grove found himself in the penalty box with a ten minute major for a head high cross-check after the Darge goal.

Adelaide adrenaline coach Ryan O’Handley was disappointed with his team’s discipline, saying that they cannot get into penalty trouble late in the game.

“[Tyler] Grove can’t take a ten,” O’Handley said. “That hurt us, but look we had a bad start and we had a good third period. It was getting a bit chippy - I can’t have one of my best players sitting for ten minutes. We had a chat about that and he understands we have to be more disciplined.”

Emotion and discipline was an issue for both teams as the game reached a climax, with Laforet adding that Melbourne and Adelaide games are always tense affairs.

“It was a pretty rough game and Adelaide-Melbourne games are always pretty rough but it’s all in good fun,” Laforet said. “We’re expecting a little bit more discipline tomorrow; we’ll have a chat, look at the game and make sure we know that we let them back in the third period because of the penalties.”

A powerplay goal from Darge on the redirect from a Kelowka shot provided a tense final five minutes.

However the Melbourne Ice were able to hold on for the win and consolidate their spot in the top four, while Adelaide dropped to fifth.

Next week the Adrenaline host the Brave, while the Ice host the Thunder.