Northstars Defeat Top of the Table, Brisbane Lightning at Home
On Sunday night the Newcastle Northstars defeated the top-of-the-table Brisbane Lightning. 2-2 at the end of the first period both teams came out fighting. The Northstars found themselves down 3-5 in the middle of the period but fought back to end the second ahead at 6-5. The third period saw new recruit Riley Klugerman score his first AIHL goals of his career, as the lone scorer with 2 goals.
QUOTES:
Associate Coach David Ferrari -
“There was a lot of adversity, and we’re still short-handed, missing some guys. So that combined with us getting on the back foot down by two with all the emotion in the game, to fight through that and win convincingly was really character building”.
“Brisbane really dug the best out of us, they came here to play, and they really showed up”.
“We have great leadership on the team, and we hand it over to them, and they got the job done. Credit to Brisbane, that’s the best and toughest test we’ve had this year, and it drew the best from us”
“We can tidy up defensively. Giving up 5 goals isn’t something we want to be doing. We will stick with the process and keep working on those areas.”
Head Coach Kevin Noble -
“We’re still finding our identity a little bit, and I thought our character to come back tonight showed the type of effort and commitment we have across the board. Everybody had some of their best outings tonight, but we’ll keep working and clean up some areas and come back better”.
Alternate Captain Patrick Nadin -
“Everyone chipped in tonight, and everyone played hard. No one backed down, and it was good to see us come back from two goals down. When behind, we stick to our game plan, and tonight was really a character win for the boys.”
Daniel Berno -
“All the guys on our team are professionals. We did what we had to do, we kept our composure and came together as a team and got the job done.”
“Everybody put their body on the line, picked their shots, blocked shots, and I couldn’t be prouder of them, that is a big win for us.”
Tanner Butler -
“That felt great, it was a big team effort, and it always is playing the first-place team, we have to come ready to play. I didn’t know what to expect from them, but it was a big team effort to get the win.”
“Whenever you come back from two goals down it’s huge for the team and a momentum booster. The crowd was great, they’re loud and it helps us so much, especially when they start chanting ‘let’s go Northstars’, it always gets us amped up.”
