Fans packed the Ice ArenA once again on Sunday afternoon and were treated to a fast paced, eleven-goal game between the Adelaide Adrenaline and Melbourne Ice.
Capitalizing on several faceoff wins, the Adrenaline took control of the first period by dominating the offensive zone and easily outshooting the Ice. Ty Wright and Julian Friederich could be seen grabbing rebounds and forcing Tatsunoshin Ishida back inside the crease to make the saves. As the period wound down Ishida might have underestimated the speed and agility of the Adrenaline's front line, as Josh Adkins quickly fed the puck to Kaden Elder who put it past Ishida into the top shelf and gave the Adrenaline a 1-0 lead.
The Adrenaline soon found themselves with two men in the penalty box and Roman Kraemer capitalized on an empty spot next to Rylan Toth, bringing the game to a 1-1 tie before the period came to an end.
The second period saw both penalty minutes and goals begin to clock up for both teams with Josh Adkins taking advantage of a four-on-four situation to score the only goal for the Adrenaline, while the Ice put four more goals behind Toth and secured a 5-2 lead heading into the third. Daniel Chen and Sean Greer doled out some big hits in an attempt to bring control back into their zone, while Elder and Noah Maley skated around the Ice defence and put in two more goals for the Adrenaline.
"There were a couple of calls that both teams weren't happy about but we can't let that affect us," Adkins says. "They got four goals on the powerplay and at the end of the day, we have to be better."
The Melbourne Ice would go on to take a 7-4 win and a total six points from the double header weekend.
"I honestly think we played pretty decently," Shaun Dosanjh says. "Playing five-on-five didn't worry us at all, but with all the penalties we kinda shot ourselves in the foot. You just can't be taking penalties against a team like this."
The Adrenaline will hit the road this weekend looking to gain some points back from the last time the team met up with both the Sydney Ice Dogs and Central Coast Rhinos.
"We've come together more as a group and we're getting more chemistry with our lines, so it will be a different team going over there." Adkins said.
Dosanjh echoed the sentiment, and says the Adrenaline have built a strong foundation in a short period of time together:
"The last time we went out there we were still getting to know each other but now we're a completely different team. We played some decent five-on-five hockey this weekend and if we can just clean up a few little things, I think we'll be okay."
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