Tale of the Tape - Northstars @ Lightning

With the final weekend of the regular season upon us, Newcastle head north to Brisbane for a double-header against the Lightning. While the Northstars are safely ensconced in the top six, but outside the top two, Brisbane still need to punch their ticket. Two points this weekend, or an Adelaide loss, will do it. The tale of the tape takes a look at how these two teams stack up against each other.

Overall in 2025

Last time around

This weekend is the second double-header between these two teams this year (and you can read the article from last time here), after the Northstars had a dominant weekend on the 12^th and 13^th of July in Newcastle – 7-3 and 8-4, respectively.

Across the two games, the Northstars outshot the Lightning 92 shots to 51, keeping Matus Trnka busy in net, where he turned away 77 of the shots. For Newcastle, Charlie Smart and Horrance Cheung split the weekend – Smart stopping 21 of 24, and Cheung 23 of 27.

In terms of scoring, the Northstars were led by the import pairing of Tallberg (3 goals and 3 assists) and Skachkov (2 goals and 4 assists), with Casey Kubara also picking up six points – with a goal and five assists. For Brisbane, no surprise that Tanner Hopps led the way with six points of his own (he has a point on 60.7% of all Lightning goals), and partner-in-crime Carson Miller had 4 assists of his own. This belies a key part of Brisbane’s scoring this year – heavily reliant on imports, with 70.3% of their points coming from imports – the only other team above 50% is the Mustangs with 52.2%.

For both teams, the powerplay was good – Newcastle was successful 33.3% of the time, and for Brisbane it was 25.0%.

Period by period

The first period will be key this weekend – it is the Northstars strongest period, and Brisbane’s weakest – so if the Queenslanders can get out to a decent start, it will go a long way to picking up the two points needed to qualify for Finals.

Likely lineups

Pending any injuries or suspensions, here is how we think the teams will line up on the weekend. Batu Gendunov didn’t play against the Rhinos last Sunday, so his availability will be important for the Lightning, while the Northstars would like Karel Kubat back soon – though may not risk him on this trip.