Northstars Suffer Double Defeat at Home

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The Northstars faced a tough weekend, being defeated 6-5 in overtime by the defending champions, the Melbourne Mustangs, on Saturday night. This was followed up by another hard defeat, losing 9-2 on Sunday night to the Sydney Bears.
 
On Saturday, goals from rookie Maliq West and import Aiden Wagner set the Northstars ahead in the first. Late in the period, though, Mustangs’ Dean Clomp would close the gap going into the break.
 
Northstars’ Daniel Berno started the second-period scoring, giving the home team a 3-1 lead, but Melbourne went on a scoring streak, taking a 3-5 lead over the Northstars going into the second break.
 
Head Coach Kevin Noble shared, “First period was a good start. We played with detail and purpose, stuck to the game plan, and played with urgency. Second period, again, was an awful period for us.”
 
“Our better guys have to be the best players on the ice. Tonight, in the second period, they (Mustangs) were better than us,” reflected Noble.
 
The third period saw the Northstars level the game. Veteran Beau Taylor, on his 150^th AIHL game, scored the Northstar’s 4^th goal, and import Aiden Wagner equalised the game with the fifth for Newcastle. Moving into overtime, however, Melbourne would seal the game-winning goal for the visitors.
 
 “I think it takes a lot of grit to win the momentum back and we were flying in the first 15 minutes of the third period,” Captain Liam Manwarring told Northstar News. “But we did that to ourselves. We put ourselves in a spot to fight back again, and we need to start playing the game a little bit smarter to get up on teams like we were and to hold onto our lead.”
 
“All our guys can play and are at the skill level to play in this league,” Manwarring continued. “But no matter what, it comes back to the mental game and the science behind hockey and remembering what we have practiced all week.”
 
“As a collective whole and individually, we had some key mistakes,” reflected Noble. “Lack of situational awareness, mental mistakes and careless hockey. Then the third period we put ourselves in a position where we have to come back and tie a game that we didn’t need to be in. It was a good period but the damage was done in the second.”
 
“We had a lot more shots on to them than we had received, their guy made a lot of big saves and did his job,” Noble continued. “Charlie, like the rest of the team, has to find a way to be better in the second period. We have to coach better as well in that time, and we have to play better.”
 
On Sunday night, the visiting Sydney Bears opened the scoring. It was a quiet and sombre crowd early this game. Before the break, Northstar’s import Matthieu Desautels scored his first AIHL goal to take it to the break with the Northstars down 1-2.
 
In period two, the Bears opened the scoring with Brody Lindal extending their lead. A lone goal for the Northstars was scored by Captain Liam Manwarring before the Mustangs would go on to score 6 unanswered goals.
 
“You can’t win many hockey games in this league giving up five goals,” a frustrated Head Coach Kevin Noble shared. “You sure as hell can’t win giving up nine. It simply was not good enough tonight.”
 
 “We’ve got to coach better, play better, practice better and we’ve got to do a lot of things better this week,” Noble reflected.
 
“We live in a world of instant gratification, and we played like a team tonight that had to make a big play on every shift,” Noble continued. “We weren’t happy playing a boring game when you were generating a lot of offense, as we did for large stretches again. Having to make bigger, spectacular play that ends up giving a free chance, free break, high danger, slot shot the other way has to stop.”
 
Captain Liam Manwarring was also reflective about the loss. “It’s a bit of a reality check for us. Obviously, we started off the season well and had a good record, but in this league, you can’t win them all, and we are going to lose down the stretch.”
 
“It’s a long game and you can’t go toe-to-toe with a team like that, back and forth, and turn the puck over and expect every bounce to go your way, and the bounces didn’t go our way tonight. It doesn’t matter, it’s about us and we’ve got to find a way.”
 
The Northstars are on the road next weekend and will head down the M1 to Macquarie Ice Arena to face the Sydney Ice Dogs on Saturday 11^th May.