Bears/Mustangs Road Trip Preview

The Adelaide Adrenaline, proudly presented by Hards Transport, this weekend embark on one of their toughest road trips to date. 

Coming off of back to back losses at the hands of the Sydney Ice Dogs (5-1) and the Melbourne Mustangs (9-5), Adelaide again head east, this time to face the Sydney Bears before heading south seeking retribution over the Melbourne Mustangs. 

The Bears split the results last weekend, winning 5-4 in a shootout over Perth on Saturday, before reversing the ledger on Sunday with a 3-2 shootout loss, again to the Thunder. 

Melbourne also had a mixed weekend, coming short in the Melbourne derby 2-1 vs the Ice, before the victory over Adelaide on Sunday. 

The Adrenaline are once again shorthanded due to injury with David Huxley, Darren Corstens, Morgan McNeill, Graham Charbonneau and Tyson Boyd remaining in Adelaide. There is good news however with defensemen Ben Gebert and Zach Boyle returning to the lineup after missing both games last weekend.

Import goalie Matt Murphy makes his first trip with the team after arriving earlier this week. Read about Matt here: http://bit.ly/2qyWdPg.

Another surprise this weekend comes in the form of Czech national, Aleš Krátoška making his way into the side. The 22 year old winger is fresh from the Czech Republic, after his team HC Tábor was eliminated from the playoffs in March.

Adrenaline Development Squad goaltender Seb will also travel with the team.

This weekend sees some interesting matchups in terms of statistics:

Saturday sees the number one ranked power play team (Adrenaline - 23%) take on the number one penalty killing team (Bears 91.3%), with both teams sitting in the middle of the pack when the tables are turned. 

On Sunday, the two lowest shots-per-game sides facing off (Adrenaline 29.8 Mustangs 29.5), which makes last weekend’s blowout 9-5 result somewhat of an anomaly. Adelaide are the lowest ranked team at allowing shots on goal, with an average of 38.23 pucks on net per game. 

Coverage of both games this weekend is limited, with no stream from the Sydney game, and the Melbourne game being the Foxtel Game of the Week. You can follow along at both the Sydney Bears twitter (https://twitter.com/sydneybears) and the Melbourne Mustangs twitter (https://twitter.com/Mustangs_Hockey).

The Adrenaline return home on May 27 to again take on reigning champions - the Newcastle Northstars. We are again expecting a sellout crowd, so be sure to get your tickets now if you haven’t already. Tickets: www.tickets.adelaideadrenaline.com.

Roster:

G: King, Murphy, Woodlands

D: Greer, Babineau, Boyle, Gebert, Geyer
F: Rezek, Oddy, Critchlow, R McGuiness, M McGuiness, MacMillan, Riley, Best, Krátoška