Tale of the Tape - Thunder @ Adrenaline

Following the lead of AIHL TV, in offering the free game of the week as the Thunder versus the Adrenaline this weekend, we take a look at this game, which has real Finals implications. For the Adrenaline, they need to win to keep the season alive, and for Perth, they have an eye on second spot. The Tale of the Tape sees how these two teams stack up.

Overall in 2025

So far in 2025

This is the second weekend meeting between these two teams (and you can even read the Tale of the Tape from last time, in more evidence that I have no new ideas). The first time around was a perfectly split weekend in early June – Adelaide won on the Saturday with a 7-4 scoreline, with Perth repeating the dose exactly on the Sunday.

Across that weekend, Adrenaline imports had a great trip west – Romans Nekludovs put up one goal and six assists, with five points each for Josh Adkins (2G, 3A) and Coy Prevost (3G, 2A). For the Thunder, Yu Hikosaka put up two goals and three assists, supported by Ben Breault (2G, 2A) and Jordy Kyros (1G, 3A). On Kyros, whose season is one point from equalling a career-best haul, and one assist away from 150 in the AIHL (in regular season games).

For the netminders, Cale Dolan stopped 43 of 53 shots (save percentage of 0.811) for Adelaide, while Aleksi Toivonen stopped 50 of 60 for the Thunder.

When it comes to special teams, the Perth powerplay had a distinct advantage – successful 28.6% of the time, compared to 20.0% for the Adrenaline.

Period by period

Both of these teams come out of the gate strongly, and have their weakest period with the long change in the second. For Adelaide, that they concede over a goal per second period is a big concern and they’ll be needing to address that to collect the points.

Likely lineups

Pending any injuries or suspensions, here is how we think the teams will line up on the weekend. Adrenaline captain Joey Macdougall missed the weekend in New South Wales last week, so if he is available would be an important addition.