Ice Dogs Split Double Header Weekend

The Sydney Ice Dogs have completed their first double-header weekend of the season, taking three of six points against the Adelaide Adrenaline and the Perth Thunder at Macquarie Ice Rink.

Import forward Tim Crowder scored a hat-trick in his debut for the Ice Dogs during their 8-0 win over Adelaide on Saturday night, while 23-year-old goaltender Nicholas Novysedlak picked up his first career AIHL shutout, also on debut for the club.

The Ice Dogs dominated even-strength possession and offensive zone time, and were impressive on special teams killing 5/5 penalties, and picking up three powerplay goals.

Ice Dogs head coach Andrew Petrie said there’s still room for improvement after the win.

“We still have somethings to iron out and make sure we are all on the same page… but that top line with the Crowder brothers and Grant Toulmin, it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a line buzzing like that,” he said.

On Sunday the Ice Dogs went down 5-3 to the Perth Thunder who were solid on special teams after a loss in Newcastle the previous night.

The Ice Dogs and Perth went 2/8 and 2/4 on the powerplay respectively, with the Ice Dogs unable to figure out their opponent’s aggressive penalty kill in the late stages of the game.

“It was disappointing, we did a lot of things really well, I’m getting sick of saying this, but we came up against a hot goalie [Nico Viksten],” Petrie said.

“The shots were relatively even, but I think we were probably 2 to 1 on grade-a opportunities, the kid [Viksten] did a phenomenal job in net.

“Saying that, Garrett had a phenomenal game as well and got hung out to dry a couple of times, but it was an even game from start to finish, if we probably had a bit more finish on the end of some of our plays, we probably would have been talking about a different result.”

The Ice Dogs will play a double header this weekend at the O’Brien Ice House against Melbourne Mustangs (Saturday 11 May, 5pm), and the Melbourne Ice (Sunday 12 May, 2pm).

Their next home game will be against the CBR Brave on Saturday 25 May from 5pm at Macquarie Ice Rink.