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Newcastle Northstars fall short at ‘Brave Cave’

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The Newcastle Northstars took a strong team to Canberra for last weekend’s double against the CBR Brave but returned home with just 1 from 6 points, losing to the Brave in overtime on Saturday night.

The team was defeated 2 goals to 1 on Saturday, and then a 2-1 lead on Sunday night looked promising, but the final result led to a 4-2 loss.

Aside from missing player-coach John Kennedy Jr, the Northstars put on a good showing, with plenty of possession but struggled to finish goal scoring opportunities, with just three scored over the weekend.

Saturday’s game was a close affair, with no goals until the game was in its second half when the Brave scored, and it wasn’t until the third and final period until the Northstars’ Shane Southwood evened up at 1 goal each.

Despite a strong advantage in power plays with the Brave heavily penalised, the Northstars were only able to score the one goal and went to overtime to resolve the game.

The overtime was short and sweet, with Australian team rep Kai Mietinen scoring on the rush against Northstars goalie Tom Munro, who played a stellar role in net all weekend.

Sunday’s game was again the turn of the Brave to lead, this time it was Casey Kubara who got the Brave in front, following brother Bayley the day prior.

The Northstars again had good opportunities and plenty of power play time, but were kept out by a strong defence and stronger goal tending by Brave’s Alexi Toivonen.

In the second period a power play goal to rookie Connor Schultz made the game 1 all after Tommy Landa drove to the net, and just 54 seconds later fellow rookie Mackenzie Gallagher made it a 2-1 lead for Newcastle with help from Alistair Rye and Tim Stanger.

The lead didn’t last the period, with Casey Kubara scoring his second of the night to end the second period 2 all.

The stalemate continued throughout most of the third period, but it was a third Kubara brother, this time Tyler, who took the lead. Rattled, the Northstars were to let in another goal before the end of the period, this time to Brave captain Matt Harvey.

Coach Ray Sheffield pulled goalie Tom Munro but were unable to snatch any equalisers, ending the game in a 4-2 goal defeat.

Sheffield felt the team played well over the weekend, with a few basics to work on going forward.

“There are a few things we need to work on – our passing wasn’t great, or our receiving,” he said.

“There were times when we just didn’t get shots away when we had the opportunities.

“The scores didn’t get blown out, I thought we played pretty well. It was all good except for the result.”

The small rink with softer ice and bouncy boards and netting meant a more chaotic game was expected.

“Our goal for the weekend was ‘score dirty goals’, it’s that kind of rink,” he said.

“We didn’t do that, we didn’t take the goalies sight away.”

The outright and overtime losses for the Nothstars still has them remaining in 2nd place in the McCormack Cup on 7 points from 5 games, well behind the Brave who have 16 points from their 7 games.

Trailing the Northstars are the Sydney Ice Dogs, who will play two games next weekend against the Brave in Erina on Sunday, and then in Warners Bay to meet the Northstars on Sunday 27 June.

The game starts at 4pm.

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