Adelaide falls to Ice Dogs on the road

The Adelaide Adrenaline, proudly presented by Hards Transport, dropped their first of a two game road trip 5-1 to the Sydney Ice Dogs Saturday night in New South Wales. 

The Ice Dogs used a two goal second period to power past the Adrenaline and move three points ahead of Adelaide in the standings.

The Ice Dogs featured a balanced offensive attack and solid goaltending in the win. Five different Ice Dogs - including four local players - scored while Damien Ketlo made well over 20 saves in the win. 

For the Adrenaline, the game result is certainly a disappointment. The team was hoping to win their second straight game vs. the Ice Dogs after beating Sydney 5-2 in Adelaide on Sunday.

Today they were unable to create the same magic. 

The anticipation for the game was fantastic. There was a sense of desperation and a playoff atmosphere from before the puck even dropped. After the same two games against each other last weekend the teams were quite familiar with each other. 

With points at a premium this season, and three straight games against the same opponent, both sides were eager to win the 'mini series' vs. each other.

Adelaide got the first of the early chances after they were awarded an early power play. Despite great puck movement and a couple opportunities created by crafty import forward Cameron Critchlow the Adrenaline were unable to capitalise. 

The Dogs had their day with a multiple power play chances of their own in the opening fram. On their second opportunity veteran Todd Stephenson, playing his 250th AIHL game, slapped home a Stephen Johnston feed to put the Ice Dogs up 1-0 with five minutes to go.

Despite a late push in the period, the Adrenaline were unable to beat Ice Dogs import goalie Damien Ketlo.

But what energy Adelaide had in the first period appeared to disappear in the second. Despite firing two quick shots on net on the first shift, Adelaide spent most of the period in their own zone. 

They broke up multiple odd man rushes but eventually the Ice Dogs broke free and pulled away.

Grant Toulmin, another Ice Dogs import, finally extended the lead for the Dogs with 6:00 to play. After David Upton dumped the puck in deep, Toulmin grabbed the puck and pulled off the old wrap around to beat Pete King.

Then, moments later, Tomas Manco scored a goal breaking down the left wing. The defenseman scored a rare one to extend the Ice Dogs lead to 3-0 to put Adelaide in a difficult hole. 

"We needed to be playing like the Ice Dogs were playing - with energy, hard work and intensity. They came at us hard and we didn't have answers for it," said head coach Sami Mantere during the second intermission show on the radio stream. 

The Adrenaline tried to steer momentum in their direction at the send of the second. The top line of Critchlow - MacMillan - Corstens generated a couple chances and delivered a few big hits but couldn't find the scoresheet in the second period. 

"At the end of the day we were giving their players a lot more time than we needed," Mantere added.

Adelaide put the pedal down in the early going of the third period and gave their supporters some hope. It took less than 60 seconds to get the Adrenaline on the board.

With traffic in front of the net Cam Critchlow went bar down to put Adelaide on the board and cut the Ice Dogs lead to 3-1.

The Ice Dogs settled down after that and began to even up the play.

Midway through the period David Upton effectively ended the game with a killer deke to beat Pete King and restore the three goal lead.

There was not much in the final moments of the third period. The Ice Dogs solidified the result with a late empty net goal.

The Adrenaline will head to a Sydney hotel tonight and try to sleep off the loss. They leave to Melbourne tomorrow morning to play the Mustangs on Sunday.