Canberra Brave capture third Goodall Cup

The Canberra Brave have captured their third Goodall Cup, defeating the hometown Melbourne Ice in the AIHL Goodall Cup Final in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon.

The Brave added to their 2018 and 2022 silverware collection with a dominant 5-0 victory over the Ice, in a contest between the second-placed Rurak and Hellyer Conference teams.

It was the Brave’s third straight trip to the final, looking to avenge the 2023 loss to the Melbourne Mustangs in the final game last year.

The Brave started the season with just one win from their first ten games, with many writing them off to make the finals series at all.

The Ice swept aside the Brisbane Lightning 5-0 in the first preliminary final on Friday night, before a 4-3 comeback win over the Newcastle Northstars in the semi-final on Saturday. The Brave beat the Perth Thunder in the preliminary final on Friday night, followed by a 5-2 upset of the league-leading Sydney Bears in the semi-final on Saturday.

A tense start to the game would ensue in the opening period, with the hits coming thick and fast off of the first draw. The Ice led the shot count 16-11 throughout the period but both Alex Tetreault and Tatsunoshin Ishida stood tall in net at either end.

That all changed in the second period.



Ratcliffe opened the scoring for Canberra with a deft tip off of a Casey Kubara shot, to give Canberra the lead 1-0, with 15:12 to play.

The Brave then got three goals inside 3 minutes to break Melbourne. Matt Harvey, in his 177^th and last appearance in the AIHL for the Brave, scored a short-handed goal for a 2-0 lead that also gave him his 150th AIHL point. Austin Cangelosi and Bayley Kubara then scored within a minute of each other to make the hole to climb out of for the Ice, a deep one.

Ratcliffe’s second with just two seconds remaining in the period made it 5-0 and the hopes of an Ice comeback were exceedingly slim.

The Brave held firm in the final period, locking down the neutral zone and keeping the Ice skaters to shooting from the outside.

It would prove to be enough, as the Brave would hold on to win their third Goodall Cup in ten years and the second out of three consecutive grand final appearances.

The Ice’s top line of Mac Caruana, Roman Kraemer and Austin Albrecht who had 16 points combined on the weekend, were held pointless.

The AIHL Finals Series operates in a similar fashion to the NCAA Frozen Four or NFL Playoffs.

The top 3 teams from the two conferences in the AIHL qualify for the finals, with the conference winners progressing straight through to the semi-finals on Saturday. The second and third placed teams play off in a preliminary final on Friday night. Both finalists had to come the long way through the finals series, playing three games over three nights.

The game also marked the second straight year there was a shutout in the final.

Alex Tetreault made 29 saves in the shutout win, while Ishida went 28 from 33 in the loss.

Ratcliffe was named AIHL Finals MVP.



Harvey was honoured with a joint lifting of the Goodall Cup with captain Kai Miettinen.

"It's still sinking in but I think this one really tops the first one for me personally. Just due to the adversity and everything we went through at the start of the season," Miettinen said, celebrating his third Goodall Cup.

"We had a 9-game losing streak, we had doubters all around us and no-one even believed we'd even be at finals but now we've lifted the cup."

Harvey, one of the few remaining Brave players from their first AIHL season in 2014, reflected on his extensive career and going out on top.

"It's unbelievable, I have a vivid memory of losing last year and I told myself that's it to get it and that's what's happened. So yeh, I'm speechless," Harvey said.

The Brave will return to the nation's capital tonight with the Goodall Cup.



A number of VIP's attended the finals series during the weekend. Hungry Jack's founder Jack Cowin dropped the ceremonial first puck. The teams also received well wishes via a video message from NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly.

St Louis Blues' forward Nathan Walker was also on hand to present the Skaters Network Australian Player of the Year Award, going to defenceman Rob Haselhurst of the Perth Thunder.

The O'Brien Icehouse was sold out across the weekend, which had only just hosted the LA Kings and Arizona Coyotes as a training venue a year ago for the NHL Global Series.

The Icehouse will also host the 2025 IIHF Division 2A World Championships next April before the commencement of the 2025 AIHL season.