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HELLYER LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Ice	3	3	0	9
Thunder	4	3	1	9
Mustangs	1	1	0	3
Bears	2	1	1	3
Ice Dogs	3	0	3	0

RURAK LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Northstars	3	3	0	9
Adrenaline	1	1	0	3
Brave	4	1	3	3
Lightning	4	1	3	3
Rhinos	3	0	3	0

SCORING LEADERS

Aiden
Wagner (NNS)

Player	Points
Jeremiah Addison (PER)	14
Wehebe Darge (NNS)	12
francis Drolet (NNS)	12
Beau Taylor (NNS)	10

GOALIE LEADERS

N Novysedlak (BRE)

1.000

Goalie	SV%
Tatsunoshin Ishida (MIC)	.952
Rhys Pelliccione (PER)	.950
Leo Bertein (PER)	.912
Jeremy Friederich (ADE)	.912

North Stars book Finals trip with win over Ice Dogs

Monday, August 3, 2015 - Submitted by Courtney Laura

The Newcastle North Stars are the first team in the AIHL Finals after dismantling the Sydney Ice Dogs 9-1 in their clash at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Fresh off a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Bears on Saturday night, the North Stars came out all guns blazing, dominating the game offensively with 53 shots on goal to 14 and taking ensuring an eight-point buffer on the top of the AIHL ladder.

The North Stars put the offensive pressure on immediately when Scott Swiston opened the scoring 83 seconds in, lifting the puck over Ice Dogs’ keeper Jake Burgess.

Dominating time in the offensive, the North Stars doubled the advantage with a backhanded shot from Robert Malloy through traffic in front of net.

Sneaking a goal under the pads of Burgess, North Stars’ captain Rob Starke found the space through gap, extending the lead to 3-0.

With some fast early shots, the North Stars came out firing in the second period.

Early in the second, Swiston gets his second goal of the night, receiving a quick pass and flicking the puck up and into the top corner for a 4-0 lead.

Tempers began to flare following a hit from North Stars defenceman John Kennedy.

However it didn’t halt the scoring for long with the North Stars piling on three goals to close out the period 7-0 through Geordie Wudrick, Malloy’s second and Jayson Chalker adding to the score line.

Early in the third, Shane Southwood continued to pile on the pain with a backhander pull the lead out to 8-0.

With a fairly slow paced game, the North Stars continually disrupted plays made by the Ice Dogs and didn’t give them the room to get around and get shots on goal.

Although the blown out score line helped turn the game into a scrappy affair with penalties littering the final period.

A penalty shot to the Ice Dogs’ Adam Kimbley was the brightest spot for the visitors, getting them on the board.

But in the final minute of the game, Kennedy waited in front of an open net, slotting the pass from Wudrick to seal the final score at 9-1.

In the final 20 seconds of the game, Malloy was given a chance at a penalty shot to bring up double figures and score his own hat trick, but was shut down by Burgess with a great save.

The Ice Dogs’ coach Tim Flynn said it was tough for his team to keep up with the dominant North Stars.

“The bottom played the top and it showed,” Flynn said. “We have a young team, most of them are under 21, so the experience, skill and size of the North Stars overcame a very determined effort.”

“Tonight we tried lots of things differently; we figured we had nothing to lose. For a while we were competitive again but when you’re young and inexperienced, you still make mistakes and these things happen.”

With five games left in the 2015 season, Flynn said there were several things he’d want his team to focus on at training.

“They need to keep their feet moving and skating harder,” Flynn said. “It has been a long hard season for them all and they are getting tired. It’s about taking the time to rebuild and keep the motivation up. Now we just have to play our best for the rest of the season and hope to get a couple of goals where we can.”

On the North Stars side of the equation, North Stars coach Andrew Petrie said he was proud of his charges who responded well in the teams’ first weekend without leading league goal scorer Luke Moffatt.

“It was always a possibility [Moffatt leaving for professional commitments], so we had contingency plans and we went with that and we have two wins,” Petrie said. “I’m really proud of the boys last night. They were really solid across the board and it was a character win, as we call it in the dressing room. They came at us hard, as they needed the win to mathematically make it to the playoffs.”

“We have the depth in our team, where the guys that aren’t in our top two lines are able to do the job when called upon. It’s hard to bring a level of intensity to a game with a team that hasn’t won all year. The game looked more like a slightly advanced practice as opposed to a game.”

Next week the North Stars play Finals contenders the Adrenaline in Adelaide in a double header while the Ice Dogs have two games at home against the Ice on Saturday and Mustangs on Sunday.

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