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HELLYER LADDER

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

RURAK LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Northstars	3	3	0	9
Adrenaline	1	1	0	3
Brave	4	1	3	3
Lightning	4	1	3	3
Rhinos	3	0	3	0

SCORING LEADERS

Aiden
Wagner (NNS)

Player	Points
Jeremiah Addison (PER)	14
Wehebe Darge (NNS)	12
francis Drolet (NNS)	12
Beau Taylor (NNS)	10

GOALIE LEADERS

N Novysedlak (BRE)

1.000

Goalie	SV%
Tatsunoshin Ishida (MIC)	.952
Rhys Pelliccione (PER)	.950
Leo Bertein (PER)	.912
Jeremy Friederich (ADE)	.912

Bears beat Ice for 3rd straight Canada Day Classic

Sunday, June 26, 2016 - Submitted by Eric Brook

The Sydney Bears have defeated the Melbourne Ice 4-3 in a shootout to seal a third straight win in the annual Canada Day Classic presented by Air Canada at the O'Brien Group Arena on Saturday.

In front of a large crowd, the Bears, who are staying in touch with the top four on shootouts in 2016, stunned the Ice early before the usual fightback from the ladder leading Melbournians.

The Bears opened the scoring with two quick goals, prompting the Ice bench to call an early time out.

Bears import defenceman Ryan Annesley took advantage of a delayed penalty for the first goal, bringing the puck into the ice zone all by himself and past Ice goaltender Troy Davenport.

A scrambling, diving Michael Schlamp secured the Bears second goal of the period 52 seconds later.

The Melbourne Ice responded early in the second period as Bobby Lipsett slotted a rebound from Bears goaltender Anthony Kimlin.

Later in the period, Bears scored a powerplay goal with a cracking shot from Annesley, his second goal of the game.

Like fellow imports Brent Vandenberg & Nic Kawasaki, they were having their first game in the country's premier arena and loving the experience.

Were the Bears going to be the first team to beat the Ice in regulation time in 2016? Not if the Ice had any say in it!

Midway in the 3rd period, Ice reduced the margin to one goal after Jack Carpenter scored on the powerplay.

Ice took advantage again and leveled the score with four-and-a-half minutes remaining courtesy of Lipsett's second with Bears Coach Ron Kuprowsky explaining "we ran out of legs after a lot of time killing penalties".

Regulation time expired and the Bears headed to their 7th shootout in 13 games.

Drawing a comparison to Washington Capitals & Team USA shootout king TJ Oshie, Nic Kawasaki again was the only player to score in the shootout.

"We'll take the shootout win but we really should have won that game in regulation," Kuprowsky said. "We've got a good team of players this year who are playing well together."

Two-goal scorer Ryan Annesley was pleased with his double but couldn't take part in the shootout.

He had an issue with a skate blade late in the game which restricted his skating.

"We haven't had the best starts all season so we tried to get the pucks in deep tonight," Annesley said. "It was a good win for us tonight."

Ice Coach Brent Laver reflected after the game with the Ice's first loss of the year at home, albeit in a shootout.

"The sun comes up tomorrow; we just had a really poor first period," Laver said. "From the drop of the puck in the second until the end of the game, it was chalk and cheese to the first. The positives are that we chipped away & didn't go into our shell. We continued to claw it back. After the disappointment of the first, we were happy to come away with a point."

Next week, the Ice travel to Adelaide to take on the Adrenaline in a double header, while the Bears host the final Battle of Sydney against the Ice Dogs on Saturday, before travelling to Newcastle to face the North Stars on Sunday.

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