The Northstars are the reigning Australian Ice Hockey League champions and kept their title defence alive with the thrilling shootout win on home territory on June 24.

The win came at a much-needed point in their season, after horror losses to Sydney Bears (8-4) and Sydney Ice Dogs (7-2) in their previous two outings. 

Newcastle’s match with Adrenalin was all tied up at four-all at the end of regulation time, forcing the game into shootout.

Northstars goaltender Charlie Smart blocked all three of the shots from Adelaide to win the shootout and finish the game 5-4.

Newcastle coach Andrew Petrie said the win was a big boost for his charges.

“From a team perspective it was excellent tonight and I’m not talking about the result,” Petrie said post-match.

“Obviously I would have rather won in regulation time, that’s always the goal.

“We’ve had a bit of a gut check down from me this week. We had a team meeting and I made a bit of a speech about what I thought it would take for us to turn our season around and took some ownership for the position we’re in, which I think is fair.

“They played as a team, they were in a good frame of mind and confident regardless of the score, regardless of how the bounces were going, regardless of how the calls were going.”

The Northstars sit in seventh position on the league ladder.

From 16 games played, the 2015 and 2016 AIHL champions have won three games and had three shootout wins.