Northstars rewarded with 6 point weekend

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The Northstars have continued their winning streak with two big wins this past weekend. Saturday saw them defeat the Rhinos in Erina 14-1 and the team backed up in front of a capacity crowd against the Sydney Ice Dogs at Hunter Ice Hockey Stadium to win 7-3.
 
On Sunday afternoon, the scoring was opened by Daniel Berno in a triumphant return in his first game of the season. This was closely followed by Maliq West’s first AIHL career goal to take a 2-0 lead over the Ice Dogs.
 
Head Coach Kevin Noble spoke highly about West's work ethic and his first AIHL goal. “He's been pushed and pushed since day one of camp here, and we talked a lot about him in the dressing room afterwards. You know, and tonight I thought he deserved that.”
 
The praise continued to roll in for West, with assistant general manager Dave Ferrari echoing the hard work that West has put in “He's been outstanding when you think of all the fundamentals of the game, of just, like we said, holding on to pucks, making good decisions at the blue lines. You know, putting it on a guy's tape, protecting the puck, all those things,”
 
“So, that's been there all year, from training camp to now, and it's great to see him get rewarded with the goal, for sure.”
 
Holding this 2-0 lead going into the first period, the excited crowd kept the atmosphere thick with anticipation for more.
 
A powerplay goal from Ice Dogs, Connor Lee closed the gap, but Northstars Patrick Nadin extended the lead, going into the second break with a 3-1 lead.
 
Northstars took control of the third period with three early goals from Taylor, Darge and Manwarring to extend the Northstars lead to 6-1. Dmitri Kuleshov fought back for the Ice Dogs with two more goals, but it would be the Northstars’ night with Drolet putting the final feather in the cap, resulting in the final score of 7-3 to the home team.
 
Noble was full of praise for Northstars’ goaltender, Charles Smart. “Charlie was great tonight. I think we left him out to dry a couple of times, but he made key saves and it’s the best he has looked for a while.”
 
Continuing on the rest of the game, Noble spoke about the work ahead. “We found a way to get through the game. Overall, we weren’t pleased with the closeness that it got to a few times, and it was good for us to be in that situation and be tested to find a way to win in a close game.”
 
“We carried large, long stretches of plan, and they were good on the counter, but when we got a little sloppy, they made us pay.”
 
“Starting season 3 and 0 is great, but we have a lot more work to do to get better, and it’s going to get harder as the season goes on. We have to make sure our attention to detail is there for the full 60 minutes of the game.”
 
“We have to find a way to not get stretched too much and give up odd man rushes and counters the other way, but overall it was a really good weekend. Hard to ask for much more than two wins and six points.”
 
Reflecting on the Sunday afternoon game, Ferrari continued his praise of Charles Smart to Northstars Media. “Charlie, I mean, we let him down at the end there, but I thought he was, really, all weekend, he was excellent.”
 
“He bailed us out on the breakaway, another one, like a tap-in really at the end there, he bailed us out, so he's probably the brightest spot. All three lines contributed. For example, the third line may not have gotten a lot of points, but they had a lot of o-zone time, and that's hard to play against. So that's something we've been working on, and yeah, I thought all three lines were great.”
 
“We have a good Adelaide team coming here next weekend, and we’ll have to be at our best again,” finished Noble.
 
The Northstars will next play Adelaide Adrenaline on Sunday 21^st April, at 4pm. For tickets visit Northstars.thundertix.com