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HELLYER LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Ice	4	4	0	12
Thunder	6	4	2	12
Bears	4	3	1	9
Mustangs	2	1	1	3
Ice Dogs	5	1	4	3

RURAK LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	OTW	OTL	PTS
Northstars	4	3	0	1	0	11
Lightning	6	3	3	0	0	9
Adrenaline	3	1	1	0	1	4
Brave	6	1	5	0	0	3
Rhinos	4	0	4	0	0	0

SCORING LEADERS

Jeremiah
Addison (PER)

Player	Points
Aiden Wagner (NNS)	18
Wehebe Darge (NNS)	15
francis Drolet (NNS)	15
Zane Jones (PER)	13

GOALIE LEADERS

N Novysedlak (BRE)

1.000

Goalie	SV%
Rhys Pelliccione (PER)	.950
Tatsunoshin Ishida (MIC)	.933
Leo Bertein (PER)	.905
Charles Smart (NNS)	.903

Ice withstand Brave rearguard

Monday, June 1, 2015 - Submitted by Karl Bala

The Melbourne Ice withstood a third period surge from the CBR Brave, winning 4-2 to split the weekend series at the Phillip Ice Skating Centre in Canberra on Sunday night.

More painful for the Brave was the stat they were unable to take advantage of a favourable 6-2 power play count as Melbourne were able to contain the Brave on their home ice.

"We had a lot of chances,” CBR Brave coach Brad Hunt said. “We out shot them and were playing pretty decent in the first - we just weren't converting. [Our] power play looked really good, just nothing was rolling our way in the net."

Melbourne Ice coach Brent Laver's focus was on tying down the Brave the entire time they were on the ice.

"The message was just '100% of the time',” Laver said. “Because [working at] 99.5%, they'll get you. They just have that much fire power up front that you can just give them a shot. We were really focused on that and putting a lot of pressure on [Josh] Unice."

Unice was again strong, facing 37 shots to 23 on Sunday, after facing 38-21 on Saturday.

21-year old Melbourne Ice defenceman Jack Carpenter kicked off the scoring with his first AIHL goal only four minutes into the match.

Unice was unfortunate to not be able to control the shot on goal which bobbled its way past his grasp making the score 1-0 to the Ice early in the first.

While the Melbourne Ice were maintaining a lot more of the possession throughout the first, the Brave's work in defence kept them in the game and ensured there would only be one goal in the first.

The second period started off in similar fashion to the second period the evening prior, with the Melbourne Ice scoring only 27 seconds after the opening puck drop through Thomas Powell.

The Brave's Scott Pitt had a chance in the 12 minute to pull one back and swing some much needed momentum his side’s way as he was able to wheel away down the ice but was unsuccessful in troubling Jaden Pine-Murphy.

The Brave were always playing catch-up as the Ice were able to control play for large portions of the second period.

The Ice's sustained pressure was rewarded through Armstrong as he added a goal to his two assists with under two minutes left to play in the second.

The second period break was just what the Brave needed as they hit the ice with a renewed sense of purpose.

It took the best part of six-and-a-half minutes but the Brave finally had some luck go their way as Scott Pitt managed to score from an acute angle from near the boards to give his team some confidence.

Three minutes later, the crowd were back on their feet as another goal by Tyler Kubara made the score 3-2, giving his side a sniff in the contest.

Both sides began to grind out the match, desperate for the next goal.

With just under a minute remaining, Brave goal-tender Unice was pulled for the extra attacker in a last ditch effort to get the equaliser, but Matt Armstrong sealed the win from half-way for the Ice as he scored on an empty net to seal the final score 4-2.

Melbourne Ice coach, Brent Laver was pleased with the weekend’s result.

"I think anytime you can come into this barn against a team of this quality and take away some points you've got to be happy," Laver said. "We were really happy with yesterday actually. A 3-1 loss and it was sort like one of those really tough ones to take because we actually thought we executed on everything and we just broke down a couple of times."

"It was a really, really a good weekend for us. We obviously got out to a great start today and they challenged back. And to stand up and win it was great."

Brave coach Brad Hunt said despite the loss, there were a lot of good things to take out of the result.

"We're going to continue what we've been doing in the last couple of weeks because we fought back hard tonight we came out sluggish in the 2nd, and the boys actually back came out played real hard in the third,” Hunt said. “And if we would have played like that in the third, things may have been different. We had a couple of mental lapses there and they capitalised. We're on the right track and we're just going to continue what we're doing and hopefully we get a win next weekend."

The Melbourne Ice have the upcoming weekend off, before hosting the CBR Brave in another double header in Melbourne on the weekend of the June 13-14. The CBR Brave host the Sydney Ice Dogs on Saturday June 6 at 5:30pm at the Phillip Ice Skating Centre.

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