Adelaide Controls Game in Perth but Falls Late

The Adelaide Adrenaline brought their best offensive game yet to Perth Saturday night but ultimately suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to the Thunder.

The Adrenaline set the pace of the game early on as they were able to move the puck forward with relative ease. Thunder goalie Leo Bertein pulled out a number of incredible saves despite relentless pressure from the Adrenaline, who were dominating in nearly all aspects of the game for the first two periods. In the leadup to the team’s west coast trip, head coach Stu Henly said that the shift from playing as a defensive squad to an offensive one was an important move to make for this game in particular. 

“We’re working on a lot of repetition with offensive work this week and we’re also working on our power play a bit more, so we’re hoping that these two things and a couple of changes to our line will equal more goals for us.” 

Among those line changes was the debut of defenceman Shaun Dosanjh and goalie Rylan Toth, two former University of British Columbia players both bringing several years of high level hockey experience with them to Adelaide.

Dosanjh was comfortable setting up his teammates with a number of scoring opportunities throughout the game while Toth was able to keep the Thunder at bay by stopping a total of 19 shots on net. 

Things began to unravel midway through the third period with a number of penalties being handed out to both teams, but it was the five minute major awarded to Adrenaline captain Joey MacDougall for butt ending that signalled the end to the Adrenaline’s control.

With just over six minutes remaining in the third Jeremiah Addison scored the go ahead goal through traffic, securing his spot as the AIHL’s current points leader as well as the win for the Thunder. 

Adrenaline defenceman Zach Boyle reflected on the previous two games that also ended in a close result for his team.

“We just got to play a real solid defensive game on our own end as well as tighten up on the neutral zone, get pucks deep and just limit the turnovers on our own defensive zone.”

The Adrenaline continue their road trip with a double header in New South Wales next weekend, starting with a rematch against the Sydney Bears on Saturday May 4^th.