The CBR Brave took all six points from the weekend series against the Perth Thunder in Perth with a 5-3 victory on Sunday.
The win sees the Brave move to third on the AIHL standings, currently equal with the Sydney Ice Dog on 36 points, two points out of first and one point out of fifth.
With the number of weeks until the AIHL finals starting to dwindle away, both teams were desperately playing to keep their post season hopes alive. After a lacklustre showing the night before home team Perth Thunder were hoping to right a few wrongs.
The first period got off to a clean start with the home team maintaining puck possession in their offensive zone early but they were unable to capitalise on their opportunities.
The Brave made the most of theirs when the momentum swung in their favour with Anton Kokkonen finding the back of the net in the opening five minutes of the game.
While the Thunder were hoping to replicate the quick reply that they had the night before, the Brave were in the zone, piling on two more goals in just over a minute through Corey Wilkie and Jordan Gavin to make it 3-0.
The second period was a more evenly matched period with Thunder being able to refocus after a disappointing first period.
Nearing the half way mark of the period, the Thunder’s Jonathon Bremner opened up his teams’ account for the night with some help from Brad Young and David Ruck. However, the Thunder couldn’t claw another goal back, keeping the score 3-1 at the final break.
With the season close to being on the line for the Perth Thunder, the third period saw the Western Australian’s on the wrong side of the referees. Despite this, Justin Fox closed the gap to one goal with an early shorthanded goal.
Alternatively, the regular man advantage was good for the Brave as well with Kai Meittinen restoring the two goal lead on the power play.
The trend of trading goals continued when Fox scored a second shorthanded goal to set up a grandstand finish.
While the Thunder pushed hard for the equaliser, time was against them. Pulling goalie Mathieu Dugas, the Thunder couldn’t control the puck with Wilkie scoring his second on an empty net to seal the 5-3 victory.
After the game, the Thunder’s first goal scorer Jonathon Bremner said he and his teammates were disappointed with the result.
“You can talk as much as you want about drawing positives from our performance but the bottom line is six points were up for grabs and we have nothing to show for it,” Bremner said. “I think tonight we were pretty persistent to get back within a goal. We made a point that we'd come back from a 3-0 deficit in our rink before, but we didn't show up in the first period and paid for it.”
After a weekend the Thunder would rather forget, Bremner and the team are now turning their attention to their home double header against league-leaders Melbourne Mustangs.
“It doesn't get any easier for us next week against the Mustangs so guys are going to have to show up to play, we can't afford anymore early deficits,” Bremner said. “We speak every game about staying out of the box but I think the game tape shows that it’s not something that's in our control. We have to roll with the punches in that regard. We usually play well against the Mustangs so I'm looking forward to taking points away from them.?”
Thunder coach Stan Scott believes there are a few things that can be worked on in the coming week.
“I think we lacked a little two-way hockey on the weekend,” Scott said. “Our PP and PK are fine, our forecheck and backcheck maybe need a shakeup. In simple terms we need to play both ends of the rink with lots more intent and commitment.”
The CBR Brave will play a home-and-away series against the North Stars in Canberra on Saturday and the Bears in Sydney on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Thunder takes on the Mustangs in Perth in a series that may well define the Thunder’s season.