Twin wins in city of churches

With twin victories over Adelaide, the Kodiak Melbourne Mustangs notched back-to-back wins on the same weekend for the first time this season. 

The Mustangs came from behind on both days at the Adrenaline’s IceArenA to stay in touch with fourth placed Perth Thunder. 

The visitors fired in six unanswered third-period goals on Saturday to win 8-3 while netting the last three of Sunday’s contest to triumph 5-3.

Saturday’s game saw the Mustangs up early thanks to goals from Jamie Bourke and Matt Anderson in the opening 10 minutes, before Adelaide nailed the next three. 

The hosts got their first on the powerplay late in the first period through Benjamin Gavoille and then added two more via Nathan Benson and Jake Riley to lead 3-2 after 30 minutes. 

Having not scored since June 9, Anderson was keen to break his eight-game goalless run in style and did so promptly, returning the lead to the Mustangs with two quick goals to start the third.

The first of those came just 35 seconds in before he struck again less than four minutes later.

From there the Mustangs put the foot down with Christian Isackson grabbing two goals of his own, his second arriving with nine minutes still on the clock. 

Thomas Flack and Vadim Virjassov, who had both earlier contributed assists, rounded out the performance with the Mustangs’ seventh and eighth scores.  

Mustangs veteran Sean Jones was also outstanding recording a game-high four assists and more importantly having a hand in all three of Anderson’s goals. 

That form carried into Sunday for Jones, only this time he was the finisher as the Mustangs went ahead seven minutes in before the team had to fight their way back for the second straight night.

Goals to Adelaide pair Andrew Stapleton and Ales Kratoska gave the Adrenaline a 2-1 advantage at the end of the first period.  

Christian Isackson tied the game with the only goal of the second period when set up by Virjassov and Parker Thomas with the shorthanded finish his 12^thgoal of the season. 

The Mustangs then found themselves down for the second time 1:56 into the third period after Josef Rezek became Adelaide’s sixth individual scorer for the weekend. 

The response was swift with Thomas needing just 1:22 to get the visitors back on even terms before Isackson’s second - four and a half minutes later - had the Mustangs breathing easier.

The result was confirmed in the final moments with Flack, who had tallied eight points across his previous three outings, scoring with an empty net with 29 seconds to go.

The Mustangs dominated Adelaide in terms of shots, racking up 45 on Saturday and even more on Sunday finishing with 49 to the Adrenaline’s 24 in both matches.

After a poor run through late May and most of June, the Mustangs have now won four of their past six, moving to a 9-9-3 record to remain in fifth with a game in hand over Perth who are on 36 points. 

They have a weekend of crunch games coming up with a trip to Macquarie Ice Rink on Saturday where they’ll face Sydney Ice Dogs (6th) before returning to Melbourne to host Sydney Bears (3rd).