Newcastle Northstars lose season opener to Sydney Ice Dogs in tight penalty shootout | photos

Northstars’ Czech import Tomas Landa made it 3-all with two minutes and three seconds left on the clock at Macquarie Ice Rink, forcing the first-round encounter into overtime.

But the visitors were unable to convert any of their four chances while the Ice Dogs netted just their final shot to claim the victory.

The final score was 4-3 with the overtime result giving the Ice Dogs two competition points and the Northstars one on the Australian Ice Hockey League ladder. 

Three times Newcastle came from behind to draw level, including twice in the third and final period.

Zane Jones made it 1-all for the Northstars late in the second term before one of Newcastle’s Canadian signings, Sam Lawson, was ejected.

US import Joseph Harcharik scored Newcastle’s second with 15 minutes left.   

Elsewhere on Saturday the CBR Brave beat the Sydney Bears 4-2 in Canberra while the Melbourne Ice made light work of Adelaide Adrenaline with an 8-0 triumph in the Victorian capital.

Although the opening round loss will be disappointing for the Northstars, it’s not going to put a dampener on general manager Garry Dore’s 2018 plans.

Doré pointed at the team’s “solid squad” at their disposal in the 2018 campaign.

“We picked up a number of signings from the Bears as well as Perth’s Haselhurst, and it’s strengthened the squad a lot to get all these guys on board,” he said.

“I actually don’t think we’ve had a more solid, deep team for a long time and we’re going to have that this year. We have a really solid [backline] and with the depth we have at our disposal now we can see ourselves in a playoff position for sure.”

This weekend the Northstars host the Brave at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, with a chance to show off the stadium’s new jumbo-tron.

“Hopefully we can see a lot of goals on that, and not a lot scored against us,” Doré said with a laugh.

Meanwhile, Northstars captain Robert Malloy and vice-captain Matthew Lindsay are away in The Netherlands representing Australia at division two of the World Championships with play getting underway on Monday. Belgium, Iceland, China, Serbia and the hosts are the others in group A.