The C.D. Dodd Perth Thunder return to action at Perth Ice Arena this weekend with a pair of home games against the Adelaide Adrenaline.  The start time for both games will be 4:30pm.  

Perth Thunder (3-W/7-L/1-OTW/1-OTL-12PTS) 
Adelaide Adrenaline (0-W/13-L/0-OTW/1-OTL-1 PTS)

Perth Thunder Host Adelaide Adrenaline

If you follow our weekly previews you’ll know that the schedule to date has been a challenging one for the Thunder.  Ten of the team’s first 12 games have been played against teams currently entrenched in the league’s top four places.  The Thunder will play their next four games against the league’s bottom side, the Adelaide Adrenaline who have managed just a solitary point on the season to date.   It is arguable that Perth’s finals’ aspirations hinge on banking as many of the 12 points available in the next two weeks as possible.  While winning the four games against Adelaide won’t get them a finals spot, failure to gain the needed points may find the team too far back to contend this season.  Needless to say, the players and coaching staff know what’s on the line and the importance of bringing their best and not taking the Adrenaline lightly.

Thunder Drop Valuable Points on the Road

This past weekend the Thunder made the trip to New South Wales and took on the Sydney Bears and the Newcastle Northstars.  Perth were in great shape on Saturday to pick up three valuable points as they took a 4-1 lead into the second intermission.  Unfortunately they were unable to hold the lead and the Bears rallied to tie the game and force overtime, eventually skating away 5-4 victors.   The Thunder were paced by a four-point effort from Louick Marcotte and 38 saves from goaltender Nico Viksten.

On Sunday the Thunder visited the Newcastle Northstars but were without Marcotte and Andrew Cox, both of whom served automatic one-game suspensions for having received game misconduct penalties following the overtime loss to the Bears.  The Northstars proved too strong on the day skating to a 6-1 victory over the Thunder, despite Perth outshooting Newcastle 33-20.  Northstars goaltender Dayne Davis was influential making 32 saves on 33 shots for a .970 save percentage in picking up his 10th win of the season.

Power Play Needs to Continue Improvement

The C.D. Dodd Perth Thunder have struggled offensively at times this season and one of the contributing factors has been a lack of production with the man advantage.  Heading into this weekend’s play, Perth’s power play has only scored six goals in 50 opportunities, good enough for just a 12% success rate.  The positive news regarding the power play is that they did score twice in five chances against the Bears on Saturday.  Perth will be looking to continue to pick up the production with the man advantage as a strong power play will go a long way to solving some of the offensive woes that have dogged the Thunder periodically throughout the first half of the season.  

Weekend Games Mark Half-Way Point

This weekend’s games will be the 13th and 14th of the season for the Thunder, marking the halfway mark of the 28-game regular season.  The Thunder find themselves six points adrift of finals contention and will be focussed on closing the gap over the next two weekends with four consecutive games against the last placed Adrenaline.  The next two weekends will be an opportunity to put Perth into a position to make a serious assault on playing finals hockey for the fifth consecutive season.  The time is now to take care of business against Adelaide to set up some pivotal, season defining, second half match-ups against fellow finals aspirants in July and August.

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