The CBR Brave have had a perfect first weekend in AIHL season 2016 with a 6-3 away win over the Sydney Bears at the Penrith Ice Palace on Sunday night.
In what was a very physical, high impact game, the Brave claimed a second straight win to start the season but Coach Josh Unice said there is still a long way to go in the season.
“Any time you win a game, it’s good,” Unice said. “We have some things we need to work on but it definitely showed a lot about our character and determination there in the third period. The Bears came back and pushed the pace in the second period but to come out as we did in the third period and sacrifice for each other says a lot about our team.”
The Brave got off to a perfect start, scoring two unanswered goals through Nicola Brandi, who scored on a five-on-three power play, and Neal Prokop.
While the Bears put up a tough battle and were getting shots on goal, they weren’t able to find the back of the net with Aleski Toivonen proving hard to bear in the Bears net.
Trailing 2-0, the Bears were looking to step up the intensity in the second period but with five minutes remaining, Brave defenceman Zach Boyle extended the lead to 3-0 with a shot from the high slot.
Down but definitely not out, with three minutes to go in the second, Richard Tesarik netted the Bears first goal on a power play to give the Bears a sniff of a comeback.
Just over a minute later, Canadian import Geoff Irwin got the rebound off an explosive Michael Schlamp shot, revived the Bears’ chances late in the second period to send the teams to the final break at 3-2 to the Brave.
In a packed Penrith Ice Palace, the rink was alive with passion, as fans spared no effort in rallying behind their teams.
The two teams came out all guns blazing to get the third period underway. But it took just three minutes for the fiery Canadian import Geordie Wudrick to get his first goal of the night to cushion the Brave’s lead to 4-2.
When Bears forward Lee Turner found the back of the net with a rocket of a snipe off from just inside of the blue line, the score was 4-3 still with 15 minutes to play.
But it just wasn’t the night for the Bears, getting strong armed by the Brave in the end, with a goal to Prokop and a Wudrick empty netter sealing the 6-3 result for the visitors.
Post-game, Sydney Bears Head Coach Ron Kuprowsky was pleased with the effort of his players.
“The boys played well, they came out and gave it a run,” Kuprowsky said. “We have things to work on and you learn more from losing than what you do from winning, so we will be bigger and better next week.”
The performance of the Bears’ 15-year old goalie James Downie in his first start, filling in for national team goalie Anthony Kimlin who has yet to join the team after the World Championships, was nothing short of valiant.
Kuprowsky has a high opinion of Downie, saying the youngster is “the next great thing coming out of Australia as far as goalies are concerned; we were fortunate to have him tonight”.
Unice said he was thrilled by the way his imports had played over the weekend with Wudrick (6 points) and Prokop (7 points) leading the scoring lists already.
“He [Wudrick] and Neal Prokop have just been scoring them,” Unice said. “To have the shots they do, you just got to get them to keep shooting the puck. It’s a numbers game and like Wudrick says, nobody asks Ovechkin what his shot percentage is, they just see he scores over 50 goals every year.”
The Brave travel to Melbourne next week to face the Melbourne Mustangs in a double header, while the Bears have the season’s first Battle of Sydney when they host the Ice Dogs on Sunday.
|
BEARS
RHINOS
ICE DOGS
ADRENALINE
THUNDER
ICE
BRAVE
LIGHTNING
NORTHSTARS
MUSTANGS
