Eastern Bound

With only six game remaining in the 2016 AIHL season, the Adelaide Adrenaline will be looking to round out a tough year in emphatic fashion and take to the road this weekend to face the Sydney Ice Dogs and Newcastle North Stars.

After yet another unsuccessful home stand, when the Adrenaline once again went down in two tight games to the Melbourne Mustangs, the team will be looking to regain some pride on the road this weekend.

Despite a tough run of results, with only two wins in the past ten games, Adrenaline head coach Eric Lien remains confident his side is showing significant improvement and can finish out the year strongly.

“We are going to enjoy the last six games as a group and finish the season off strong,” Lien said.

“The structures put in place over the last month are starting to sink in and hopefully it is something this group can carry with them in to next season as well.”

Adelaide’s woes have been added to with recent injuries to key defenseman forcing Lien’s hand to make substantial line-up changes.

 “We are still running very thin on defense, so we will keep a few forwards back there this weekend,” Lien said.

Fortunately for the Adrenaline, flexibility is not an issue with Josef Rezek putting his hand up to make the switch to defense last weekend.

After some initial shakiness, Rezek warmed to his new position, displaying great defensive responsibility and the role on the blue-line highlighted his puck-moving abilities.

For the Adrenaline, injuries and line-up changes also present chances, with young players such as Marcel McGuinness and Jake Reilly already stepping up this year.

“It’s a good opportunity for a couple young guys who haven’t had a run in the league yet to stepin and hopefully get some valuable experience,” Lien said.

Whilst given young players opportunities will be squarely in the front of Lien’s mind, his focus remains on winning the remaining games and feels whilst the weekend presents a good opportunity to do so, they can’t afford to take the opposition lightly.

“The Ice Dogs can be dangerous. Just ask the Perth Thunder who went down 3-1 in the same venue (that the Adrenaline play in on Saturday),” Lien said.

“In all likelihood the team that loses (Saturday’s game) will end up with the wooden spoon so you have two proud organisations getting ready to battle it out.”

Sunday will be an entirely different proposition for the Adrenaline, who come up against last year’s AIHL champions, the Newcastle North Stars.

The North Stars look a formidable opponent, they currently sit in second on the AIHL ladder – with two games in hand on the third-placed Thunder – but the Adrenaline will be buoyed by the fact they took it right up to Newcastle last time the teams met.

“Any team in this league has a chance to win on any given night,” Lien said.

“Goal scoring has been tough to come by for us, so we will need to make sure we convert on the scoring opportunities we get.”

Both games are 5PM local time. Stay tuned to our social media pages to follow along and for game updates.