Ice Dogs 6

For the third time in the 2010 AIHL season, the Proski Newcastle North Stars won after a penalty shoot out.

The North Stars defeated the Ice Dogs 7-6 on Sunday after running down a three goal lead to equalise the score at six each at the end of regular time, before it ended in a forced shoot out.

The game was intense as expected between these two arch rivals and they provided a great spectacle for the Mother’s Day game.

Import Chris Belanger scored the first goal in the seventh minute and it started a scoring one-for-one rush up to the last five minutes.

The score at the end of the first period was 3-2 to North Stars.

An intense second period only saw one goal scored by the Dog’s Scott Herbert, tying the score three all.

The Dogs gained the lead 6-3 after scoring three goals in the first three minutes of period three, but the North Stars were reluctant to let the Dogs stay in front.

Many attempts were made by the North Stars to equal the score but it was the three new imports Belanger, Bales and Peter Cartwright who scored in the last minutes of the third period to bring the game to a shoot out.

In the best-of-three round shootout, Ice Dogs’ Andrew de Christoforo scored first on North Stars goalie Matt Ezzy but Blair Tassone equalised immediately against Ice Dogs goalie Jim Herbert.

The Dog’s Derek Campbell and Chris Sekura missed their chances against Ezzy while Cartwright brought the game to a close scoring the final goal in the shoot out.

North Stars Coach Don Champagne was happy with the result.

“Three wins from three, two at home, you can’t complain,” he said.

Champagne feels with a full team at practice and Rob Starke and Sean Outram’s return, the team will improve even more for next week’s game against the Sydney Bears in Penrith.