PREVIEW: Adelaide Adrenaline vs Newcastle North Stars

The road to the finals gets no easier for the Adelaide Adrenaline as they face-off against the league leaders, the Newcastle North Stars in a double-header at home.

With a crucial win last weekend against the Melbourne Mustangs, the Adrenaline find themselves on the cusp of the fourth and final spot in the 2015 Australian Ice Hockey League Finals.

The team sits fifth and five points adrift of the CBR Brave but with two games in hand, the Adrenaline will be hopeful a strong showing this weekend can catapult them closer to a finals berth.

Beating Newcastle will be no easy task, with the visitors recording an impressive 16 wins from 23 games this season, with only four regulation losses.

However, the North Stars will have to be wary of coasting home to the end of the regular season after securing a berth in the 2015 AIHL Finals last weekend.

The visitors will also be without their leading goal-scorer and second overall point scorer in the league, Luke Moffat for the remainder of the 2015 season.

Moffat, who has an incredible 33 goals and 32 assists in 21 games this season left Australia on July 27^thto join Italian Serie A side, Gherdëina.

In spite of the loss of their leading goal scorer, the Adrenaline will not be taking the visitors lightly with their season on the line and almost every game up until the end of the regular season being make or break.

Adrenaline forward Joseph Rezek believes the team has the ability to do win and just need to replicate the kind of hockey they produced against the Mustangs last weekend.

“We need to play like [last weekend], if we play like that I believe we can beat anyone in the league,” Rezek said.

The Adrenaline will certainly need to bring their best, having lost heavily in both previous encounters with the North Stars this season.

However, the Adrenaline found their goal scoring stride of late and again look the dynamic offensive threat that had them terrifying opponents early in the season.

Game times are 4.30pm Saturday and 3.30pm Sunday at the Thebarton Ice Arena.