Originally published on theaihl.com

The KODIAK Melbourne Mustangs have held on to beat the Adelaide Adrenaline at the O’Brien Group Arena on Saturday night, with a 5-4 shootout victory in the 2^nd last home game for 2018.

The two teams had not met since the opening weekend of the season and the Adrenaline refused to go away in a game the Mustangs essentially controlled from start to finish.

Ben Davies opened the scoring with his 12^th goal of the season for the Mustangs, after a nice pass from Pat O’Kane to beat Sebastian Andersson glove side and put the home side up 1-0 just three minutes into the first period.

Just under two minutes later, the Adrenaline answered through former Mustang Corey Stringer’s second goal of the year and it was a tied hockey game, 1-1 just 5 minutes into the first.

Andersson was outstanding for the Adrenaline as he turned everything he possibly could away, until a penalty to Steve Best for hooking led the Mustangs to the power play with 3:27 remaining in the period. They converted instantly through Brett Ferguson and it was 2-1 Melbourne heading into the first intermission. It was the 18^th power play goal in 2018 for the Mustangs and Ferguson’s team-leading 7th on the man-advantage this season.

A late penalty in the first to Jamie Holland saw Adelaide start the second period on the penalty kill. The Mustangs used this to extend their lead just moments into the frame, when Nikita Kolesnikovs unloaded a bullet from the high slot past Andersson for his third of the year, to make it a 3-1 Mustangs lead.

The Adrenaline then clawed their way back in.

Ales Kratoska forechecked hard and stole the puck from Damien Bright in his own end. His initial shot from a tight angle was saved by Aleksi Toivonen, but the rebound kicked out to Harley Anderson who made sure of it to make it 3-2 with 1:56 to play in the period.

Adelaide then had a chance to tie the game after Mitch Humphries was ejected from the game towards the end of the second period. The Adrenaline seized this opportunity with both hands to do exactly that.

Kratoska was again the catalyst on the Adrenaline goal when he combined with fellow Czech Joey Rezek on the power play to make it 3-3 and send the Mustangs’ crowd into whisper-quiet mode just two minutes into the third.

Andersson made the save of the game moments later on Ferguson when he lunged out with his paddle to deny Ferguson a chance to lift the puck over the Swedish netminder.

The Mustangs looked to have sealed the game when they got a go-ahead goal from Pat O’Kane with just 4:31 remaining in the game.

It was not to be.

Best had been kept off the scoresheet until the final two minutes of the game when he found space at the side of the net, putting the puck past Toivonen for his 9^th of the year with just 1:54 remaining and sending the travelling Adrenaline fans into a frenzy.

With the season on the line, Max Parent gambled and pulled Toivonen for the extra attacker with 90 seconds remaining. However, it would count for naught as Andersson put up the wall across the goal line and the two sides headed to the shootout.

Rezek was the lone scorer for the Adrenaline in the shootout, while Ferguson and Virjassov were both accurate to give the Mustangs a 5-4 shootout win and two season points to take them to 27 from 22 games.

Toivonen stopped 14 of 18 in the win while Andersson went 44 from 48.

Despite the win, the Mustangs are all but out of the 2018 AIHL Finals race, now needing to be perfect in their remaining six games while relying on other results. The Mustangs can take a maximum of 45 points from their remaining six games but failed to make up ground on the Sydney Bears, who defeated the Perth Thunder also in a shootout.

The Mustangs now travel to Adelaide to face the Adrenaline in a doubleheader next weekend in the final meetings for the two clubs this season.