COACH’S CORNER with Stan Scott
It was excellent to see such a large crowd supporting the Thunder and I thought we played quite well for the majority of the game, but it is impossible to keep the scores close against a team like the Ice when you spend over a third of the game in penalty box, but when 5 on 5, it was an even score.
We had a team plan to play tight, defensive hockey, but when you’re missing three imports and shorthanded for much of the game, its difficult to maintain the flow we were trying to generate, and the game eventually got away from us.
Credit to the Melbourne Ice, as they are a quality outfit and deserved the win, but possibly not by the score line they got. I know a lot of fans and the players were very frustrated with the refereeing, but it is not an easy job, and we can’t afford to harp on that any further. What we need to do now is get our full squad on the ice, put this week behind us and focus on the challenge next weekend in Sydney, which will be two more very hard games.
Even though we were beaten, a lot of positives came from the games. Our local players played very well they also showed lot of character and team spirit. I have always stated we would have a tough start to the season playing short but when Michael Forney and our other imports arrive over the next two weeks, I am sure we will be better for this experience.
It’s a long season and we are taking the view that whilst the Ice beat us here, we now just have to beat them in Melbourne to even it up. The job at hand is to take some points from the next two games in Sydney. We’re only two games into a 28 game season, so there’s still a lot of hockey to be played.
The next time you see the Perth Thunder play at Perth Ice Arena you will see a very different team and style of play on the ice, and we will give our incredible fans a lot more to cheer about.
We look forward to seeing you all then.
Stan Scott
Head Coach
Perth Thunder
© Photo: Paul Kelly – Shutter Speed Designs