Perth storm early to beat the Bears

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Perth Thunder claimed a third straight win with a 4-1 victory over the Sydney Bears at Sydney Ice Arena on Saturday.
 
The Thunder came prepared after the team’s last visit to Sydney saw the Bears snap Perth’s four-game winning streak 6-5.
 
Their mantra this time around: get on them early.
 
“We knew we’d lost a couple of times here before and we just had to get the jump on them I think,” Perth forward Jonathan Bremner said. “We got down early previously against these guys and we just didn’t want to let that happen again. It was all about keeping the feet moving early.”
 
Sydney Bears were without their team-leading scorer, Dane Ludoph. Interim head coach, Steve Austin made the decision with Ludolph to take precautionary measures against a needling groin injury.
 
“He could go out and tweak it and we could lose him for three weeks instead of one week,” Austin said. “So we decided give it a rest tonight, take our chances since being at home, we had a few more extra players on the bench. We thought we’d let him rest tonight; he’s going to skate on Tuesday and be back next week.”
 
Bear’s forward Cameron Todd was also out with shoulder injury with reports he should be back next against the Adrenaline in the upcoming double header in Adelaide.
 
Perth Thunder played a short bench for their road trip to Sydney but we’re successful in shifting a forward to defence with little hiccup.
 
“We had [Robert] Haselhurst drop back in D which he’s done,” Bremner said. “He’s a natural D-man back in the states so it wasn’t an issue for him and he did a really good job. That made it a lot easier but we still had to shuffle the lines a bit and that’s something you have to deal with especially playing in this league. Some guys can’t always make it away to road trips and it’s up to us to fill in roles. We had some guys playing different roles tonight and we’re just lucky it came out in our favor.”
 
Perth stuck to their game plan and got an early goal from Stuart Stefan just over three minutes into the first period for his eighth of the season. The Thunder kept their lead playing well in their own zone and applying constant pressure to the Bears.
 
“Just get on them early,” Perth goalie Mathieu Dugas said. “Try to play a simple game, play well in our own zone and try to capitalise on our chances and I think we did that tonight.”
 
Sydney Bears have struggled for scoring chances lately after being shutout by Fraser Carson and the Melbourne Mustangs and only registering one goal against the Melbourne Ice’s ten last weekend. Their misfortune continued early with the Thunder picking off pass attempts to break out of the zone.
 
“Tonight we didn’t do as good of a job as we should breaking out and into the neutral zone; turning the puck over just before we get to the red line and not doing a good enough job on both blue lines,” Bears captain Michael Schlamp said. “Whenever you turn the puck over there, the team’s just going to ram it back down your throat and you’re not going to get any opportunities.
 
The Bear’s first chance at goal in the second came after a scramble in front of the net was disallowed after discussion between the linesmen and referee.
 
Momentum then went against the Sydney Bears with Perth’s Andrew Cox scoring their second goal on the next shift while the Bears were still in shock. Their no goal status was further driven home when Justin Fox scored his thirteenth of the season for a three-point night with two assists.
 
Austin believed it was a mental lesson in hockey for his team. With a lot of hockey left in the game the Bears lost focus and the Thunder were right there waiting.
 
“You have a call like that go against you and of course the guys lose their confidence,” Austin said. “They try so hard and you can see how hard we have to work to get a goal and when you get one and they disallow it? It hurts but that’s all part of the game.”
 
Perth goaltender Dugas agreed that was the turning point for the Bear’s game.
 
“It was a big turnaround,” Dugas said. “It could’ve been 1-1 but the goal went for us and we scored right after then it was 2-0. That was huge and we took a lot of momentum off them. They came out strong third period but we were able to cut them off so it was good.”
 
The Bears came out strong early in the third but the back of the net still eluded them after fixing earlier breakout and neutral zone woes.
 
Mathieu Dugas is second in the league with goals against average and was just over four minutes away from a shutout in the third before the Bears were successful in converting their third power play opportunity for their only goal of the night.
 
“It raised our confidence a bit when we did get that goal because I thought we played not too bad all round but we just didn’t get the puck in the net,” Austin said. “You have to score to win so it would’ve been nice if we’d got one of them earlier in the game; I think it would’ve made a big difference.”
 
Sydney pulled Daniel Palmkvist the final minutes with Perth’s Jordan Kyros scoring his third of the season into the empty net for the 4-1 win.
 
Discipline has been an issue for the Bears all season and their lone penalty of the night was a positive to take away from the game.
 
“We’ve been trying all year,” Schlamp said. “Definitely, with the guys it’s one of the main things we’ve talked about; staying out of the box and making sure we’re playing at even strength. We did a good job with that at least tonight and hopefully that will continue for the rest of the year.”
 
The Perth Thunder is currently in sixth place and five points behind fourth place Canberra Brave who they will face in a back-to-back this weekend at home. With ten games left in the season for the team a playoff berth is still possible.
 
“I think we’re just focusing one game at a time,” Dugas said. “We can’t control what other teams do, we can only focus on what we do and take it one game at a time and try and get as many points as possible.”
 
The Sydney Bears will face Adelaide Adrenaline on the road after their game on Sunday was postponed by the accident.