The Sydney Bears mauled the Sydney Ice Dogs, 10-3 in the Battle of Sydney on Saturday night at the Penrith Ice Palace.

The Bears continued their red hot form, having four of their last five games and the win moves the side into fourth on the AIHL standings.

Bears captain Michael Schlamp lead the way for the home side with a four-point night, scoring one goal and three assists.

 “We knew it was going to be a physical game tonight,” Schlamp said. “It’s always going to be tough playing the Ice Dogs. The Battle of Sydney is always a tough game. All our guys came through ok and now we’ve got a week off to rest up before we head to Canberra to take on the Brave.”

The Ice Dogs were hamstrung by a short bench and with only 11 skaters they struggled to generate momentum.

“We came in the game with multiple injuries and a few suspensions,” said Ice Dogs coach Mario Passarelli. “We knew it was going to be a numbers game on the bench. The physicality was there but it was a tough night for the guys.”

The Bears controlled the game from the drop of the puck, with first period goals at regular intervals to Tomas Landa, Joe Harcharik and a power play goal to Patrick Ward seeing the home side go into the first break up 3-0.

The Bears didn’t let up in the second, piling on three more goals early in the second through Ales Padelek, Richard Tesarik and Spencer Austin.

Having doubled their advantage to a massive 6-0 lead, Bears coach Vlad Rubes had the ability to give his rookie line plenty of ice time.

After two more power play goals to Schlamp and Harcharik, rookie Lachlan McKenzie scored his first AIHL goal with wicked back hand shot.

“It was a nice goal” said Schlamp. “The boys made sure we got the puck for him and everyone on the bench was happy excited for him.”

McKenzie’s marker made it 9-0 to the Bears and put the result beyond doubt.

With two-and-a-half minutes left, the Ice Dogs rallied for three late goals in a 45 second burst to get the crowd on their feet including first goals in the AIHL for import Kevin Harvey and Jackson Knott, with Alec Stephenson slotting the third.

However, the game was gone and the Bears added hit double figures through defenceman Spencer Austin bagging his second for the night, finishing off the 10-3 win.

The Ice Dogs are trying to put that performance behind them, looking forward to next Sunday’s game against the Melbourne Mustangs at the Liverpool Catholic Club Sports Complex.

“We’ll be doing some conditioning this week,” said Passarelli “We’ve got some guys coming back from bumps and bruises and it will be nice to have a full line up for our next game.”

Meanwhile, the Bears  will enjoy a week off, before heading to the nation’s capital for a crucial game against the CBR Brave on Saturday July 18 with both teams still in the finals hunt, and are currently separated by two points having played the same number of games.