The Newcastle Northstars kicked off their 2019 Australian Ice Hockey League campaign in fine style at the weekend, netting 10 goals in back-to-back wins at home.
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Despite a shaky start in Saturday's game against the Sydney Bears, with the Northstars trailing 3-0 after 10 minutes, the home team came back to eventually win 4-3. It was a different tale against Melbourne Ice on Sunday with the Northstars shutting out the visitors 6-0.
"It has taken a lot of preparation to get to this point," Northstars coach John Kennedy Jr said. "A lot of our local guys have been on the ice since January so it's great to get this result on the first weekend."
The Northstars have a fresh outlook in 2019. After finishing fifth in the standings last year, changes were made in the off-season in a bid to see the team returned to the top of the table.
Kennedy was appointed coach, the team had a player shake-up and three new imports were recruited: Canadian Francis Drolet, Slovakian Dominik Gabaj and Czech Ondrej Smach.
Returning Canadian import Sammy Banga came up big for the Northstars at the weekend, scoring Saturday's game opening goal and netting a hat-trick on Sunday.
Drolet and Gabaj scored debut goals for the Northstars. Captain Bert Malloy, Richie Tesarik and Tim Stanger added to the goal count.
The Northstars face Perth Thunder and Adelaide Adrenaline at home this weekend.
