Newcastle Northstars players Liam Manwarring, Beau Taylor and Robert Malloy are helping mark the return of international ice hockey to Australia this weekend.
The trio are representing Australia in the Trans-Tasman Ice Hockey Challenge in Melbourne.
The first game of the three-match series was due to be held on Friday night with the second and third games to be held Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Manwarring, a Northstars junior who became the first home-grown captain of the Australian Ice Hockey League side earlier this year, is representing the Mighty Roos in the series for the second time, having played when it was last held in New Zealand in 2019.
"The Trans-Tasman has been going for quite a number of years now, but it's usually in Queenstown," Manwarring said.
"This year they've brought it to Melbourne, to our Winter Olympics sports centre, and New Zealand are travelling to us. It's good to have this challenge back post-COVID."
The Mighty Roos are out for revenge on home soil at O'Brien Icehouse after the Ice Blacks claimed the 2019 series 2-1. The two sides haven't clashed in Australia since 2011.
The Northstars boys will be hoping to have more luck playing at the Melbourne venue than they did back in September when they lost the AIHL grand final to Canberra.
Manwarring said like other sports, the series had a typical Australia-New Zealand rivalry.
"It's always pretty rough, you could probably compare it to the footy," he said.
"They always come hard as all New Zealanders do. It's good fun, it's good to be a part of and we'll see what happens."
