The Melbourne Ice defeated the Newcastle Northstars 4-3 in a gripping second semi-final at the Hungry Jack’s Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) Finals series at O’Brien Icehouse. Melbourne’s victory sets up a Grand Final meeting with the Canberra Brave.
After the end of the regular season, the Northstars finished at the top of the Rurak Conference, earning a free pass through to Saturday night. At the other end of the arena, the Melbourne Ice were prepared for their second game in two days after putting Brisbane Lightning to the sword on Friday afternoon with a controlled 5-0 win.
Before the game, long time supporter and sponsor of the AIHL Mick McCormack was presented with an AIHL Patron award in recognition for his service to the AIHL and hockey. The Newcastle Northstars were presented with the trophy for winning the Rurak Conference, accepted by captain Liam Manwarring.
To the surprise of no one, Tatsunoshin Ishida started in net again for the Ice after his shutout win against the Lightning the previous day. Charlie Smart has performed the majority of the work in net for Newcastle after sharing the end of the season duties with Mitsuaki Inoue.
Newcastle welcomed back Riley Klugerman after a long time off the ice with an injury. In the one game that he did play, the older Klugerman brother did score 6 points. Melbourne’s lineup was unchanged from the previous game.
After five minutes of play, the Ice were on the good end of a five on three powerplay with Daniel Berno and Alex Yuill in the penalty box. It was the first five on three powerplay in just over three semi-final games.
Roman Kraemer was looking for a clear shooting lane and picked his spot perfectly, high glove side on Smart for a five on three powerplay goal. It was Kraemer’s third goal of the weekend after two goals against the Lightning on Friday.
Soon after, the Melbourne Ice goal horn sounded again with another goal to Kraemer. However, the goal was immediately waved off and the play continued. Once play stopped, the potential goal was reviewed.
As he had done so often in the regular season, Kraemer was able to beat a goalie at point blank range. On this occasion, the review was unsuccessful and the original no goal decision on the ice was confirmed.
After many minutes of Newcastle hammering Ishida, Riley Klugerman fired a long distance shot from the right hand side. Daniel Berno tried to redirect the puck, however, there were questions about if the puck was played with a high stick.
The call on the ice was a goal and the video review confirmed the goal with 6.35 remaining in period one. The goal was initially awarded to Klugerman to tie the game 1-1 but it was later adjusted correctly to be scored by Daniel Berno who touched the puck on its way through.
Klugerman would get his name on the scoresheet 36 seconds later with no need to review the goal.
In the second half of the period, it was all hands on deck at the South Pole end in front of Ishida. Despite this, Ice’s early pressure helped the local team lead shots on goal in the first period 15-11.
Melbourne started the second period on a powerplay which was one of several penalties in the period. There were several close calls at either end of the ice including Joey Hughes finding the bar for the Ice. There were lots of battles up and down the ice in a physical period.
The pace was high with little result until Newcastle defenceman Hunter Ellen fired a shot from near the blue line closest to the Ice bench. Wehebe Darge was in the right place at the right time with the redirection of Ellen’s shot to extend Newcastle’s lead to 3-1.
The Ice continued to lead shots on goal 27-21 after 40 minutes.
100 seconds into the last period, Austin Albrecht and Kraemer combined for the Ice to bring the Northstars lead to 1 goal on a 2 on 1. Kraemer has been the Ice’s most potent weapon this Finals series, scoring four goals in two games.
With 11.31 remaining, Jeff Solow fired a low bullet which beat Smart blocker side. The blue and red coloured screen in front of Smart certainly aided Solow’s shot.
The final stages of the third period was typical Finals hockey. Close calls at either end, the ebbs and flows of the crowd, players going the extra mile. Players who normally do not feature heavily on the scoresheet who were looking to make their mark on the game.
With 4.31 remaining, Lachlan Cincotta for the Ice certainly made his mark on the game with a shot from the high slot beating Smart to retake the lead 4-3.
91 seconds remaining saw Newcastle call their timeout and pulled Smart for the extra attacker seconds later. Maximum attack for the Northstars was seemingly not enough with the extra attacker on.
With 29.1 seconds remaining Johnny Aonso was assessed a penalty which gave Newcastle a 6 on 4 player advantage. Then, with four seconds to go, Daniel Berno was millimetres away from sending Newcastle to overtime on Ishida’s right hand post.
A pile on followed in front of Ishida’s net which took much longer to work out. With the Melbourne Ice awarded a powerplay after all the dust settled, and a faceoff in the Northstars zone, the Ice could breathe a little easier.
Melbourne Ice take the win 4-3 in a come from behind win after Newcastle were leading 3-1. Shots favoured the Ice 43-31 in the end.
Talking with Hockey Hype Australia after the game, Melbourne Ice forward Roman Kraemer spoke about playing three games in three days to win the Goodall Cup. “We kind of wanted that extra game because it’s kind of hard coming in on that second day against a team that already played the night before. It’s almost like having a morning skate. It prepared us more.”
Reflecting on Lachlan Cincotta’s game winning goal, Kraemer was excited for his team mate. “He’s the unsuspecting guy and that’s usually how it goes in these big games. It’s just awesome to see him be the guy to put it in the back of the net. It was just awesome.”
Cincotta was pleased with scoring the goal which propelled the Ice for the win. “Yeah, it meant a lot. The boys clawed it back, which was crazy, right? Got the crowd going and then, yeah, Albrecht passed me one and I just managed to do as much as I could and got it done.”
When asked about playing in front of the large vocal crowd with lots of local support, he thought it was unreal. “It’s what you dream of, isn’t it? A young kid playing in front of the home crowd in a grand final. So yeah, it’ll be an interesting game tomorrow, can’t wait for it.”
At the other end of the the range of emotions in the building, Newcastle Northstars alternative captain Francis Drolet had praise for some of the younger players in the squad. “It’s so fun as an older player to see those kids getting better during the season because they have potential to go somewhere and play better hockey and play more minutes and it helps the program. I’m glad they’re improving the program. They worked hard all season, so credit to them.”
As for himself, his plan for the future and his motivation is clear. “I’m going back to France for a while there (during the Australian off-season). Hopefully win a cup there (in France) and come back and win a cup here because I hate losing.”
At the end of semi-final Saturday, both Conference champions with the Friday off were eliminated. The second-placed teams from each conference will battle for the Goodall Cup on Sunday.
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