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Coach's
Corner
Match Reports by North Star's
Coach - Don Champagne
On Sunday evening the Impart Group Newcastle NorthStars raided the Sydney Bears den leaving no honey
in the pot for the AIHL's first place team. The game was played on the Bears home ice and this time it was the
NorthStars turn to leave enemy territory with the spoils of war. Period one ended with the NorthStars down by a
goal, however it was one of those periods the NorthStars know well, Ray Sheffield commented " our line hit the
post twice and put one off the goalkeepers stick, we should have been ahead 3 -1 after the first we've done this
so many times before and walked a way with a loss."
In the second period the NorthStars came out firing notching up two goals in the first minute sending the bears into
'Panda-monium'. The forward line of Michael Schlamp, Brett Hillier and Ray Sheffield were simply amazing, Brett
scoring first then setting Ray up for a quick one-timer 30 seconds later. The same line scored two more goals later
in the period while the bears scored once the period ending 4 - 2 in favour of the NorthStars.
The final period was one of desperation for the bears. One of the fans commented ' I don't think the bears have
been in this situation for a while, they didn't know how to handle it'. Late in the period there was an all out brawl after
one of the bears mauled the NorthStars goalkeeper in a tense goal-crease scramble. The NorthStars came away
shorthanded as the bears launched their final attack pulling their goalkeeper for an extra attacker, it was now 5 vs 3.
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The Bears were relentless finally scoring a goal to make it 4-3 with 1 minute and 20 seconds to go. On even strength
with less than a minute to go and with only one hope for a tie, the bears opted for the extra attacker once again
removing their goalkeeper. The bears were denied their picnic this time as the NorthStars triumphed the game
ending 4-3 in their favour.
Stars of the game would have to be the NorthStars goalkeeper Ken Kozak and the line of Brett Hillier (2 goals),
Michael Schlamp (1 goal) and Ray Sheffield (1 goal). Coach Don Champagne reflected," Ken kept the boys in the
game stopping dangerous shots from all angles while the threesome scored big goals at critical times, however let's
not forget the rest of the team. We were short two key defensemen and several players carried injuries into this game,
they played as team and showed a lot of heart, they earned every minute of this victory. This was a very important win
psychologically, we now know we can beat the best"
The weekend in the AIHL was an interesting one with the Adelaide Avalanche defeating the West Sydney Ice Dogs
7-0 and Melbourne going down to the Canberra Knights 6-2. " It just goes to show that on any given day any team can
be beaten said NorthStars General Manager Gary Dore, if the NorthStars beat Canberra on the 15th and then beat
Adelaide back at home on the 23rd of June it could put us in a very interesting position." In any event the NorthStars
cannot be taken lightly.
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