Weekend Preview - Adelaide Adrenaline

It is often that people discover far more about themselves when travelling than when they remain in familiar surroundings, and as such, The James Melbourne Mustangs have a great opportunity to find out what they are capable of when they spend a second straight weekend on the road. Following mixed results in New South Wales last weekend, the Mustangs will head to Adelaide to face the Adrenaline in back-to-back games.

Typical of the season so far, the Mustangs record on the road began in inconsistent fashion. A failure to match the intensity of the Newcastle Northstars resulted in the Mustangs suffering a 6-3 defeat, but they fought back to register another win over the Sydney Bears the following day. A key difference between the two games was not allowing the Bears to take too much of a lead in that game. While the 5-1 deficit the Mustangs faced in the third period against the Northstars proved to be insurmountable, they successfully overcame a 4-2 margin in favour of the Bears, thanks to some crucially timed goals late in the second period.

As the away team it is essential to control the momentum of the game, and the Mustangs will look for an early lead in the upcoming games against the Adrenaline in an effort to minimise the influence of external factors, and play the game to their strengths. It’s never easy to chase down your opponent, but it is exponentially more difficult in an unfamiliar arena.

Similar to the Mustangs, the Adrenaline have lacked consistency in their performances this season. Whether you look at the two occasions they travelled to Melbourne to face the Mustangs in 2017, or the past weekend against the CBR Brave, the second game was a complete reversal of the first. The Mustangs dominated the first leg of their home games against the Adrenaline and came away with a 9-5 victory, but a week later the tables were turned and the Adrenaline defeated the Mustangs by 7 goals to 3.

The Adrenaline spent last weekend in Canberra, and again after dropping the first game 8-3, they were victorious in the second by a score of 8-5. Notably in both of those latter games, the Adrenaline started their import goaltender Matt Murphy, and he was outstanding. He stopped 32 from 35 shots against the Mustangs and made a whopping 62 saves last week against the Brave. It is going to take a considerable effort for the Mustangs to score this week, so they will have to ensure their defence is at its best, because when Murphy is goal, the Adrenaline forwards have more freedom and can quickly rack up the goals.

The win over the Bears last week helped the Mustangs keep pace with the teams ahead of them, but they still find themselves three points behind the Adrenaline at the tail of the field. The knowledge that they can come from a couple of goals down to win on the road will provide the Mustangs with confidence, but a good start will hopefully prevent that situation from arising, and enable the Mustangs to head home with maximum points.