Newcastle Northstars @ Central Coast Rhinos
These percentages are a prediction based on each team's Elo rating, a score that goes up after wins and down after losses. You can check how this is calculated below.
How this probability was calculated
Central Coast Rhinos gets a small bonus for playing at home. A big win raises a team's rating more than a close one does, and overtime or shootout wins count for less, since the game was still tied when regular time ended. Ratings update after every game, so each team's recent form is already built into the number you see here.
What a Win Means
Newcastle Northstars
A win here would keep Newcastle Northstars at 1st, on 56 points. They'd stay inside the top 6. Right now, Newcastle Northstars are given a 100% chance of making the finals. It would put a 6-point buffer between them and second-placed Mustangs, assuming Mustangs's own result doesn't close it.
Central Coast Rhinos
A win here would keep Central Coast Rhinos at 8th, on 33 points. They'd still be outside the top 6, but closer to it. Right now, Central Coast Rhinos are given a 0% chance of making the finals. Bears would still be 6 points clear on 39 pts, so this result alone wouldn't be enough to catch them.
Head-to-head this season
| Date | Away | Score | Home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 20 Jun, 2026 | Central Coast Rhinos | 4–6 | Newcastle Northstars |
| Sun 10 May, 2026 | Central Coast Rhinos | 1–8 | Newcastle Northstars |
| Sat 2 May, 2026 | Newcastle Northstars | 3–6 | Central Coast Rhinos |
In-Form Players
| # | Top Forwards | PTS | Form (L10) | Lg Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | Evgenii Skachkov | 69 | #1 | |
| 20 | santeri haarala | 67 | #4 | |
| 17 | Francis Drolet | 40 | #22 |
| # | Top Defence | PTS | Form (L10) | Lg Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Akihide Watanabe | 40 | #23 | |
| 77 | Ethan Hawes | 17 | #71 | |
| 10 | Aziz Baazzi | 13 | #90 |
| # | Goalies | SV% | GP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | Matus Trnka | 0.893 | 24 |
| 75 | Matthew Montgomery | 0.000 | 7 |
| # | Top Forwards | PTS | Form (L10) | Lg Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83 | Danick Bouchard | 68 | #2 | |
| 18 | Raphael Bastille | 60 | #5 | |
| 16 | Tyler Kubara | 33 | #28 |
| # | Top Defence | PTS | Form (L10) | Lg Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Robert Malloy | 24 | #51 | |
| 91 | Scott Dewar | 3 | #155 | |
| 27 | Stuart Cole-Clark | 2 | #186 |
| # | Goalies | SV% | GP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | Anand Oberoi | 0.884 | 27 |
| 33 | Sean Ellison | 0.767 | 7 |
How Elo ratings work
Elo is a rating system first made for chess, and it works just as well for ranking hockey teams. Every team starts the season with a rating of 1500. After each game, the winner's rating goes up and the loser's rating goes down. The size of the change depends on how surprising the result was. Beating a much stronger team gains more points than beating a weaker one, and losing to a weaker team costs more points than losing to a stronger one.
Here's how AIHL Forecaster calculates its ratings. The home team gets a +35 point bonus before each game, since playing at home is a real advantage in hockey. A win in regular time earns extra points if the margin was large, up to a cap, so a blowout moves the rating more than a one-goal win. Overtime and shootout results only shift the rating a small amount, since both teams were still tied when regular time ended. Ratings are recalculated after every single game, so a team's Elo rating always reflects its most recent form, not just its overall record.