The 2018 Kodiak Melbourne Mustangs Season started full of promise when Jamie Bourke scored within 41 seconds to give the Mustangs the lead. Despite peppering the Adrenaline defence all night the game ended with 3-1 loss to the Mustangs and with the team needing to regroup before taking on Perth Thunder next Sunday at O’Brien Group Arena.

Despite the scoreline Coach Max Parent had plenty of positives to take out of the game. “We created a lot of chances, had over 40 shots and could have got a lot more if we didn't miss the net about 10-15 times,” Parent said. “We need to get to the tough area and stop playing in the outside area of the ice. We are best when we play a simple, high-tempo game and we got away for that at times yesterday and that cost us the game.”

When asked about what the team would be focussing on at training before next Sunday’s game Parent said “we will be working on bringing our body and the puck to the net and making sure we finish our chances around the net.”

The Mustangs had all the attack in the first period peppering the Adrenaline nets with 8 shots compared to their 6 on our nets. Pitkanen was a wall and the Mustangs offence just hit the pipes too many times.

The last goal was an open net goal so the score line is not truly reflective of the result.

With strong games from Bourke, O’Kane, Robertson and others there were plenty of highlights from the game and with just a few more shots on target the result could have been completely different.

Our next game is Sunday April 29 against Perth Thunder at O’Brien Group Arena. Puck drop is 4pm. Tickets can be purchased via Ticketmaster. Memberships are still available.