Captain Liam Manwarring says the Newcastle Northstars are keen to move on from their "decent reality check" of dual losses last week when they face the Sydney Ice Dogs on Saturday.
The Northstars host the Ice Dogs at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in their final Australian Ice Hockey League match at home this season. Apart from an exhibition game at the Warners Bay rink in coming weeks, the Northstars will be on the road in the run to the finals.
With five games left to play, Manwarring said his side hadn't given up on stealing an unlikely minor premiership from league leaders Canberra Brave.
The Northstars lost back-to-back games to the Brave in the nation's capital last weekend, 9-3 and 8-2 defeats which Manwarring said made for a long drive home.
"It was a pretty tough weekend," he said. "Going forward we can't make excuses for ourselves. It was a decent reality check, but the best part is we've still got five weeks left to redeem ourselves and show we're the best team in the league."
The Northstars (36 points) need to win their five remaining games to surpass the Brave (46), who have only one league fixture left to play.
The Northstars remain without Australian under-20s representatives Ethan Hawes and Connor Schultz, who have been in Mexico contesting division three of the under-20s world championships. Hawes was player of the match in Australia's 5-1 quarter-final win over Kyrgyzstan. Their semi-final against Mexico was due to be played overnight.
