by Michael Rozleja
The Hunter Adelaide Adrenaline have opened the 2011/12 AWIHL season in emphatic style crushing the Brisbane Goannas in their double-header at the Ice Arena Thebarton over the weekend.
With both teams coming off a rebuilding year and looking forward to a brighter 2011/12 season. Whilst the Adrenaline couldn’t have had a better start, the Goannas showed some very positive signs for the season ahead.
A powerful display in every facet of the game, Adrenaline piled on 18 goals to 1 to easily take maximum points, recording an 8-1 victory on Saturday and backing up in game two with a 10-0 win.
This results and effort making Adrenaline Head Coach, John Botterill, very happy. “At the start of the year we got a few new girls on the team and lost a few girls from last year. Really positive the way they all supported each other and that was our ambition, get out there, work hard and support each other.” John said.
Adrenaline defenseman Jess Dennis also added, “It’s the first time we’ve played together with this line up it took a little bit of teething, but we really started to sink well with each other.”
Cleverly coached by John Botterill and aided by the dominance of Adrenaline’s first line of Natasha Farrier, Bethanie Kavanagh and Andrea Steranko accumulating a massive 26 points between them. Also add to that the hard working effort and versatility of Courtney Tremblay, the poise and cool head of Diana Glass. Taylor Botterill also rates a mention for her maturity and knowledge of the game. While Taylor did not score points her previously mentioned attributes and positioning was outstanding and play such an important role. Adrenaline’s goal tenders Belinda James and Claudia Tom were outstanding with Claudia been made to work harder in game two.
Adrenaline controlled the weekend through their Defensive team controlling the neutral zone where Adrenaline were able to put constant pressure inside the Goannas zone. With silky passing and outstanding puck control Adrenaline constantly was attacking the Goanna goal at will.
“We trained hard and the D’s have been getting thrashed a lot in training. Getting us used to keeping things in the offensive zone, making sure we have the guts to keep the play there and take the chances when we need to.” Jess said.
Jess further added, “We have got a really strong line and there’s a lot of depth in there.”
But credit has to the Goannas defensive team and in particular to their goal tenders Kristy Bruske, Hayley White and Fiona Jeffery. Their efforts were exceptional despite the score line. Erin Webber produced some great hockey, fast skating out of their own zone and silky skills but just lacked the support needed going forward. Tamara Jones was another Goanna who worked hard all weekend for little reward.
“I really thought they stayed with us (the Goannas) in the early part of game one and a lot more so than last year. They worked really hard, especially their goal tenders played excellent and their skill level has improved. But we have a better team than last year so you give them credit.” John added.
The Goannas produced some good clean quick skills that in time will only improve but lacked some strength along the boards where they were continuously out muscled.
The Adrenaline now look forward to hosting the Melbourne Ice in two weeks and the Goannas get their first home fixture against the North Star-Sirens on the 5th November 2011, in what should be another very entertaining weekend of hockey.
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