Newcastle Northstars added one point to their tally after a tough battle against the Adelaide Adrenaline on Saturday night, going down 3-2 in a shootout in the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL).

Francis Drolet would score early in both periods one and two for the Northstars, but Adelaide responded in the final minutes before each intermission to keep the game tied at both breaks.

A scoreless third period sent the game to overtime and a shootout, in which Adelaide secured two of the three available points.

Northstars Head Coach Kevin Noble shared the winning recipe with Hockey Hype Australia, stating that to win, they have to “get a little bit more to the net, making it harder on them [the opposition], more shots, an extra special block shot, extra-special compete or an extra-special finish.”

“We had some really good looks, but at the end of the day, the mistake in the second period on the PK [penalty kill] is the one that stings,” continued Noble, “We get stretched out, and we have two minutes left [in the period], and we weren’t our normal attentive selves, we were a little bit casual in the details.”

Newcastle saw the return of Captain Liam Manwarring for the home game match-up, and he spoke with Hockey Hype Australia about the game and setting his sights on guiding the team forward.

“We’ve got a roster this year that love being in the close games, but we just need to find a way to be – as Coach Kev told us – ‘extra special’, whether that’s how we compete, secondary scoring or finishing in an extra special way and being a hero.”

“We have to find a way to be extra special in the role that we play,” continued Manwarring.

“And guys have done a great job so far, and it’s good to have such a big line-up again. I think we’re going to hit our straps at the right time, and while some people might be counting us out, I’m counting us in.”

Newcastle have some important games ahead, rounding out the season, and will continue to face strong goaltending.

Rylan Toth was as strong as ever on Saturday night for the Adrenaline “He’s a stud,” said Manwarring.

“He’s one of the best goalies the league’s ever seen. He’s a great guy, and he plays the game at a professional level.

“We’re going to be on the opposite side of good goalies from here on out.”

“It’s about getting in front of a goalie, and the greasy [goals] count so much more at this time of year.

“You can be extra special with a goal, or you can be extra special when getting in front of a guy and doing dirty things on the net.

“Going down the stretch here, we need to work on that a bit more,” finished Manwarring.

It won’t get any easier for the Northstars as the season heads towards AIHL Finals. Everything on the line they will face top quality goaltenders.

“When you’re playing a goalie like that,” started Noble, “we’ll see a few more of them, and we just needed a little bit more finish around there.”

Looking ahead to next weekend, Noble began, “Melbourne’s a big weekend, so on Tuesday, we’ll go back to work and get ready to compete hard.

“As you get towards the playoffs, we’re not going to overload on anything or try to cram last minute.

“We’re going to be playing either Friday or Saturday night against a really good team. We just need to punch our ticket to get there.

“Mathematically, we still have some work to do, but we’ll come back and go back to competing and finding those little details in our game and more finish around the net.”

Newcastle fly to Melbourne next weekend to take on the Mustangs on Saturday, July 20th, and Melbourne Ice on Sunday, July 21^st.