Thunder take opener against Northstars

The Perth Thunder have opened their 2017 Goodall Cup campaign with a 3-2 victory over last season’s AIHL champions, the Newcastle North Stars at a packed out Perth Ice Arena.

The North Stars travelled to Perth after dropping their opening match for Season 2017 to the Adelaide Adrenaline and looked to bounce back in Perth on the second leg of their road trip. 

A physical first period saw both squads come out of the gates looking to stamp their authority on the game.

The match up was a first for new Thunder Head Coach Dave Ruck as his youth infused squad took to home ice for the first time this season, and both Newcastle goalie Charlie Smart and returning Thunder import netminder Peter Di Salvo proved solid in net.

A scoreless first period did see plenty of big hits from the Thunder, a strong sign for the season ahead, and the period wrapped up 2 minutes early due to medical issues in the scorer’s box and both teams headed to the locker rooms locked at 0-0. 

At the conclusion of the two minute catch up from the first period, the North Stars took a hold of the game off the stick of captain Robert Malloy, who put the visitors up by one early in the second.

Not content with trailing in their home rink, the Thunder soon replied with a big rebound goal from Andrew Cox to level the scores at one apiece and shortly after a great pass from Ben Breault put Tomek Sak through on a breakaway and he put the Thunder up 2-1 leading into the second intermission.

The Thunder picked up at the start of the third period where they left off at the end of the second, with an early breakaway and a well timed backhand shot from Ben Breault resulting in a Thunder goal

After some fast paced end to end hockey, Newcastle’s pressure was rewarded with Matt Marantz slotting one on the backhand over the shoulder of Peter Di Salvo to pull the visitors to within one midway through the third. 

With less than a minute remaining in the game, the North Stars appeared to tie things up. However the goal was waved off as the referee determined the puck was kicked into the net off a skate. Some big saves late from Di Salvo proved pivotal for the Thunder as they skated away with a 3-2 win over the reigning champs.