PREVIEW: Adrenaline set to fly to Sydney and Melbourne in busy weekend

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The Adelaide Adrenaline have had an extremely difficult schedule to start the season. 

They opened at home vs. the defending champion Northstars, played two games on the road vs. the Goodall Cup favourite Melbourne Ice, played two tough home games against a strong Ice Dogs squad and now go play four straight on the road.

The thing about this road trip is that it is split city. Sydney on Saturday, Melbourne on Sunday for two weekends in a row. 

All these games are crucial too. The AIHL appears to be more competitive than ever this season so taking points on the road is vital.

The Adrenaline start their road trip Saturday at 4:30PM Adelaide time vs. the Sydney Ice Dogs - the team they split games with last weekend. The match will not be livestreamed but the Ice Dogs will provide an audio call of the game beginning at 4:30PM on www.mixlr.com/sydneyicedogs. 

On Sunday morning the boys wake up early and fly to Melbourne to take on the Mustangs. This game starts at 3:30PM Adelaide time and will be streamed at a link provided at a later date.

Here are some key things to look out for on the weekend.

1) Depth

The Adrenaline are running thin on bodies after a slew of injuries smacked the team in the face. Forward Steve Best (shoulder) plus defensemen Zach Boyle (shoulder) and Ben Gebert (shoulder) are all set to miss about a week of action due to injury.

This means that Adelaide will need players like Jordan Geyer and Sean Greer to step up and play a significant role on the weekend. 

Adelaide are sending 10 forwards and 5 defensemen. In Sunday's 5-2 win over Sydney all three lines scored a goal. Coach Sami Mantere will look for the same production with relatively similar lines. 

2) Special teams on fire

Adelaide have now scored in four straight games on the power play. This is a significant improvement for a team that was dead last in power play conversions last year.

Josef Rezek has been fun to watch on the power play as he has shifted to a point position and has been fantastic moving the puck. Mix that with Adelaide's high powered imports and we have a treat to watch.

3) Killer Cam leads the way

Adelaide fans must be enjoying watching import Cam Critchlow go to work every weekend. The Canadian forward has 11 points in five games and leads the league in scoring. Last time he played on the big ice in Melbourne he scored four goals vs. the Ice. Can he do the same vs. the Mustangs?

4) "Best of 3 Series"

On Saturday Adelaide finishes a stretch of three straight games vs. the Ice Dogs. These games are vitally important because both teams are arguably fighting for a similar spot on the line up. 

Sydney won Game 1, Adelaide won Game 2, but who will take the points in a massive "Game 3". The winner will take a vital edge in the season series and move ahead on tiebreaker in event of a tie.

5) The lowdown on the Ice Dogs

Last weekend the Ice Dogs suffered a serious setback in losing star local forward Billy Cliff to a foot injury. He will miss significant time. This means that another local will have to step up and that will likely be 18 year old Ellesse Carini who scored last weekend vs. the Adrenaline.

The Dogs will start import goalie Damien Ketlo who was brilliant in Game 1 vs. the Adrenaline but shaky in Game 2. If Adelaide can put pucks past him the Ice Dogs may not have the scoring to keep up. 

On the blue line Rory Rawlyk looked impressive for Sydney. The import d-man played in the AHL - just a tier below the NHL - and used his massive 6'5 frame to cause havoc on the ice. Grant Toulmin has a strong track record vs. Adelaide and will be the one to watch.

6) What's up with the Mustangs?

That's a great question because the Mustangs are coming off a quirk in the schedule which saw them have back-to-back bye weeks. They have not played since April and will look to shake off any rust. They play the Ice in the Melbourne derby on Saturday night.

Their players to watch are certainly Jamie Bourke, Pat O'Kane and Anton Kokkonen. 

Bourke has been a star local player for the last few seasons and can score multiple goals per game. O'Kane has been a leader and star for the Mustangs as an import the last four seasons. Kokkonen returns to Australia after he dominated the league in 2014 with Canberra. He needs to get rolling to help pace the offensive production.

In net it will be a battle of the local. Pete King vs. Melbourne's Fraser Carson is a tasty match up between goalies of strong Aussie calibre. But who get's the better of who? That answer will help determine the result.