Resembling Madison Square Garden rather than the home of the Hopman Cup, more than 11,000 fans watched the fast-paced action unfold over two games, dominated by the reigning Olympic Champions and crowd favourites Canada.
Game One was a high scoring, tightly contested affair, with Canada threatening to blow the US away in the second, only to see the lead disappear in the third and final period.
Canada led 1-0 after the first period, with Bryan Cameron finishing off a beautiful passing play by the Canadians, introducing Perth to the speed and precision of international ice hockey.
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READ NOWThe second saw a scoring explosion, with Canada jumping out to 5-3 lead, two goals coming from Canadian captain and Philadelphia Flyers winger Andrew Gordon, who finished with three.
Tied up early by the US in the third period, Canada responded quickly with two goals, going on to win game one 9-6.
Canada continued their dominance on Saturday, beating the Americans 5-1. Canadian captain Andrew Gordon said he was stunned with the Perth facilities and crowd support.
‘This is absolutely beautiful. I didn’t know how they were going to convert a tennis arena into a hockey rink but this is cool to see how they made that conversion,’ Gordon said.
‘When I signed up I didn’t know what to expect. Obviously it’s not a sport that is familiar to a lot of Australians but it’s an exciting sport so I felt like people who love sports and love competitions the way Australians do, they’d pick this up right away.’
US coach Keith Primeau said ice hockey’s speed was the most noticeable difference to Australian sport.
‘It’s fast paced; they’ll be surprised by the speed and the pace of the play, the action of the skaters and how quick the puck moves,’ Primeau said.
More than 2500 litres of water was used for the frozen surface.