With two high action games played on the weekend, there was very little sign that The James Melbourne Mustangs were returning to action after a long two weeks off.

Saturday saw the first Melbourne derby of the year, with the Mustangs hosting the Ice. 

Goaltender Nic Novysedlak's start in net was his first since 2015 and facing his old team in his Mustangs debut, he stopped 34 of 36 shots to be named the first star of the game.

It felt like very little of the game was played at even strength, with the Mustangs getting five power plays to the Ice's six. The Mustangs penalty kill was strong, stopping the Ice five times plus Jeremy Brown's power play goal came with only one second left in a slashing penalty to Jack McCoy. 

The power play unit wasn't as dominant however, going 0-for-5 all night. Strong Ice defence kept the Mustangs to 23 shots, with only Jamie Bourke getting through goaltender Dayne Davis in the third period. Bourke's goal was the 100th of his AIHL career.

A final score of 2-1 saw the Ice take the derby title for the fifth time in a row, but after an 8-1 victory in preseason the team has realised the Mustangs just might not be the easy-three-points opponent they were expecting this year.

"We played well. Nic played really well. He did a great job. We played with a good level of intensity. There's things we can build on, but I think we were close to keeping the intensity up every shift." said coach Michael Flaherty. "Their goalie came up with some really big saves so we need to work on getting those rebounds. The penalty kill was fantastic but I also don't want to spend that much time practicing the penalty kill. The power play is always a work in progress. We put together different combinations tonight and sometimes it takes time to click."

Sunday's game was the opposite of Saturday's low scoring affair, with seven different goal scorers for the Mustangs leading the team to a 9-5 win over the Adelaide Adrenaline.

Captain Michael McMahon opened the scoring for the Mustangs three minutes in before league-leading scorer Cameron Critchlow tied the game for the Adrenaline late in the first period. 30 seconds later Brendan McDowell restored the Mustangs lead, where it remained for the rest of the night. 

The Mustangs penalty kill was clicking again. While allowing one Adelaide goal from three opportunities, the special team scored two short handed goals via Maxime Parent and Anton Kokkonen during the same four minute penalty to Sean Jones.

Three Adelaide goals near the end of the second period closed the gap from 6-1 to 6-4 and had Mustangs fans sweating, but the home team remained in control through the end of the game to complete the 9-5 victory.

"It was good to get the three points, they were much needed." said Flaherty after the win. "There's positives and negatives, there's things we can work on and things we can build on. We need to make sure we continue to do the good things and eliminate the bad. We got into a good position today and then stopped doing the things that got us there. We were easing off a bit and we've got to keep the consistency and intensity up throughout the entire game, every shift. That is something we'll be working on for sure."

Saturday's 3 Stars:
3rd - Matt Beattie
2nd - Dayne Davis (Ice)
1st - Nic Novysedlak

Sunday's 3 Stars:
3rd - Cameron Critchlow (Adrenaline)
2nd - Anton Kokkonen
1st - Jamie Bourke

Next home game: vs Adelaide Adrenaline, 4pm, Sunday 21 May. Get your tickets at Ticketmaster now.