The Newcastle Northstars have sealed their first victory of the 2023 Australian Ice Hockey League campaign, beating Sydney Bears 3-2 at Macquarie Ice Rink on Saturday evening.
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Daniel Berno and Zane Jones gave the Northstars a 2-0 lead before Thomas Steven pegged one back for the Bears in the first period.
The score remained 2-1 in favour of the Northstars heading into the final third after a scoreless middle period but Tim Newmark put Sydney on level terms.
But Canadian Andrew Smardon made an immediate impact in his first outing for Newcastle by producing the winning goal.
"It was a gutsy effort," Northstars coach Kevin Noble said.
"The guys played hard. It's always a tight contested match against the Bears. They're a quality opponent and we always have close games.
"It was good for us to have a close, hard-fought match and have to win because you've got to get accustomed to winning those type of situations."
Noble said the point of difference for Newcastle was the return of key personnel against the Bears.
The Northstars were missing almost two-thirds of their starting side when they lost their opening two games in Melbourne on April 15 and 16.
"I thought structurally we were pretty good in terms of our systems having not practised together for really at all with the roster we iced yesterday," Noble told the Newcastle Herald on Sunday.
"Our structure was really good and that's more of a testament to the guys that we've added in being able to pick that up with having little practise behind us, but still lots of room for improvement."
Newcastle are on the road again next Saturday (5.15pm) against Canberra Brave before hosting Central Coast Rhinos in their first home game of the season on Sunday (4pm).
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