Northstars captain Robert Malloy reached a significant milestone as unbeaten Newcastle went top of the Australian Ice Hockey League standings.
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Malloy scored in both of the Northstars' victories at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium across the weekend, going past 200 career points (goals and assists) in the national league.
Newcastle defeated winless Adelaide Adrenaline, who they meet away in this weekend's double header, 6-2 on Sunday after accounting for Perth Thunder 5-3 on Saturday.
Northstars coach John Kennedy jnr praised the mark of Malloy.
"That's awesome [to reach that milestone] and hats off too him," Kennedy jnr said.
"He's an incredible captain and the work ethic he puts in has shown throughout his entire AIHL career."
The Northstars led from start to finish against Adelaide on Sunday but had to come from 3-2 behind against Perth on Saturday.
"We'll take those wins," Kennedy jnr said.
"We kept on playing even when things got frustrating. We outshot our opponents and both of their goalies played very well, but we didn't allow ourselves to get frustrated when we easily could have."
Hamish Powell, Shane Southwood and Sammy Banga all netted in game two before Adelaide opened their account to make it 3-1 at the end of the second period.
Franics Drolet's double and Malloy then extended the advantage in the third.
Malloy, Liam Manwarring, Drolet, Dominik Gabaj and Ondrej Smach all scored in game one.
Kennedy jnr said he felt Canadian import Banga and goalkeeper Dayne Davis were Newcastle's best.
"I thought Sammy Banga played really well and although he dropped a couple of points across the weekend he did a lot of the small things that help make us successful," Kennedy jnr said.
"And Dayne Davis was a rock for us back there."
Meanwhile, the Northstars held a minute's silence for former Newcastle championship-winning player Mike Blackwell, who recently died in the US.
