A Tough Weekend

The James Melbourne Mustangs had a weekend to forget, with two losses involving hard to swallow scores.

In a repeat of last weekend's match ups, Saturday saw the Mustangs take on the Melbourne Ice followed by the Adelaide Adrenaline on Sunday.

The Mustangs appeared to have picked up where they left off, keeping with the Ice early but after being outshot 9-3 went into the first intermission down 1-0. Penalties hurt in the second period, with the Ice scoring two power play goals from three opportunities to stretch the lead to 3-0 at the break.

Things went from bad to worse in the third period with Kristoffer Backman scoring just 49 seconds in. Five more Ice goals, including one short handed, sealed the Mustangs fate. Goaltender Nicholas Novysedlak left the game after the ninth goal, with backup Jack Hayes making three saves in his seven minutes in goal.

A late act of aggression from Steve Belic saw him and Ice import Niklas Dahlberg suffer game misconduct penalties.

This penalty along with an injury to Jack McCoy saw the Mustangs go into Sunday with only two healthy defence pairings.
 
The Mustangs took their first lead of the weekend three minutes into Sunday's game with a Maxime Langelier-Parent goal. However, the joy was short lived as two goals from Adelaide in the first period followed by two scored short handed in the second had the Mustangs paying for their defensive lapses.

Greg Oddy scored 31 seconds into the final period - his 600th AIHL point - and this fifth Adrenaline goal saw Novysedlak pulled from the net for the second night in a row. Adelaide's 7-3 win was sealed with an empty net goal from Josef Rezek.

The Mustangs complete their run of 8 games in Melbourne this weekend against the Sydney Bears. Get your tickets now from Ticketmaster.