Blue Tongues Sweep Adrenaline At Home

Yet another full house of exuberant fans watched as the Blue Tongues faced off against the Adelaide Adrenaline in the second of the home game double header on Sunday evening. Milan Novysedlak started in goal for the Blue Tongues for the second game in a row, backing up after facing a phenomenal 50 shots on goal the previous evening. The Adrenaline were expected to come out firing, after losing their first game of the season the night before, but the Blue Tongues were more than ready to take them on.

Less than a minute into the game, Jon Bale tipped in a slapshot from Henrik Ivarsson near the blue line, giving the Blue Tongues a 1-0 start. With 9 minutes left in the first period, Adrenaline's Mitch Villani was taken from the ice with a dislocated shoulder after it popped as he was going hard into the boards. The Adrenaline's play intensified, but was unable to stop Brad Smulders' slapshot 90 seconds after Villani was helped off the ice. Adelaide's Jeremy Beirnes opened their scoring with 15 seconds left in the first. The score at the end of the period was 2-1 to the Blue Tongues.

Four minutes into the second period, the Blue Tongues' imports Chris Martin and Henrik Ivarsson were in the penalty box, and the Adrenaline scored again on a 5-on-3 powerplay, Greg Oddy getting past Novysedlak to end Martin's penalty. Ivarsson, however, made up for his being in the penalty box when he was passed the puck by Tino Sandhu and sent the third slapshot of the game past Adelaide goaltender, Olivier Martin with six minutes left in the second. The score at the end of the period was 3-2 to the Blue Tongues.

The third period was an epic battle between both sides, as the atmosphere in the rink was palpable. 5.22 into the third period, Chris Martin scored for the Blue Tongues, assisted by Tino Sandhu and Brad Smulders. Only 30 seconds later, Jack Conner scored the Gold Coast's fifth goal on a beautiful breakaway, only to have it disallowed due to the fight that broke out between Jeremy Beirnes and Henrik Ivarsson just as Connor scored. Brad Smulders made up for the loss, scoring again with just under 8 minutes left in the game.

First star of the weekend was Milan Novysedlak, who faced 86 shots and only allowed 4 past him. Second star was Brad Smulders, who finished the weekend with 3 goals and 4 assists.

The Blue Tongues won their second game in row against the Adrenaline 5-2. The two wins sends the team to second place on the ladder behind league leaders, Newcastle North Stars. The Blue Tongues have a bye next weekend and will once again take to the ice at Iceland Bundall on June 20, 2009 when they take on the Sydney Ice Dogs. Puck Drop is at 3.30pm.