Brave finish runner's up in 2023 Championship tilt

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Photo: Brave supporters at the 2023 AIHL Finals second weekend in Melbourne - by Phil Taylor

The Caribou CBR Brave have finished runners-up in the 2023 AIHL Finals Series, going down in the Goodall Cup Final 0-1 to the Melbourne Mustangs.
 
The Brave travelled to Melbourne for week two of the AIHL Final Series for 2023, having been rewarded with the first week off for finishing top of Rurak Conference in the regular season. The Brave faithful took a leaf out of Steve Martin and John Candy’s book and got into planes, trains and automobiles on the annual pilgrimage to the Icehouse in Melbourne.

Colour and noise filled the air in and around O’Brien Icehouse and Urban Alley across the road as Australian ice hockey’s weekend of weekends was in full swing once again. You could not look in any direction and not see AIHL hockey filling the space and creating a carnival type atmosphere. It was wonderful seeing large contingent of fans from each team competing in the weekend and fans of other teams in attendance too. Newcastle fans still made the journey in numbers and Ice fans too. I was especially happy to see a large group of Thunder fans make the 3,400 km trek from Perth to Melbourne.
 
The Brave were placed in semi-final two for Saturday evening, something Stu Philps and Jeff Helbren were less than impressed with when I bumped into them Saturday morning getting coffee. But being second on the day, did not stop Brave fans turning out in numbers for Semi-Final 1 between the home team Melbourne Mustangs and Hellyer Conference winners, Sydney Bears. Finals hockey tends to be less scrapy and a whole lot tighter than the regular season, as neither side wants to give away needless penalties or lose the game and get eliminated. The Mustangs pulled off the first upset of Finals 2023 by defeating the Bears. However, it was the fact they won 4-0 and secured a shutout that caused the most discussion at the pub between games ahead of the Brave hitting the ice.
 
Nerves ran high and people were generally divided on how well the Brave and Thunder would go in semi-final two. My unscientific pre-game pub-test generally leaned towards a Brave win, but there was a lot more nervousness than in 2022.
 
Canberra started the semi-final on the front skate, with Perth looking a little unsure of themselves on the ice. A polar opposite display compared to the last couple of encounters between the two teams. Perhaps it was Perth’s poor Finals record or the fact this was their first time back in Finals since 2019, in either event the Brave took advantage of the situation and scored the opening goal through the ever-trusty Austin Albrecht. Tyler Kubara then doubled the Brave’s lead before AIHL coach of the year, Ben Breault, led from the ice and scored to pull a goal back for the Thunder on the power play right before the end of the first period.
 
Period two took a sudden turn after just a couple of minutes when former Brave player, Lynden Lodge, went down with a medical emergency following a check. Luckily Tyler Kubara was on hand straight away to provide assistance, Tyler is a paramedic by trade, as well as medical staff by both teams. After a lengthy delay, eventually Lynden got off to hospital and subsequent scans cleared him on anything super serious, but it was one of the scariest scenes I have witnessed at a hockey game at the time. There was no scoring once play got restarted on period two, but the Brave cemented their win in the third period through goals to Bayley Kubara and Felix Plouffe, but it was a subdued atmosphere for the remainder of the game as everyone just wanted Lynden to be okay.


Photo: Caribou CBR Brave players stick tapping the Brave faithful after defeating the Perth Thunder in the 2023 AIHL semi-final - by Phil Taylor

On Sunday, Goodall Cup day, with the news that Lynden was okay and had left hospital, the mood had lifted back to a regular festive state. There was plenty of orange and yellow around the place. The Brave were trying to go back-to-back and secure the ACT’s fourth ever Goodall Cup, and the team’s third. The Mustangs were trying to win their second ever Championship and their first in nine years.
 
In what will go down in AIHL history as one of the most tightly contested and unusual games, the Mustangs fed on the home crowd and natural fan advantage and somehow found the one and only goal of the game in the second period from team captain, and longtime servant, Brendan McDowell. When the goal went in the wall of noise in the arena was insane, it literally felt like it was going to blow the roof off. The Mustangs perfected their gameplan from the day before with he Bears and repeated it against the Brave. The brave team looked often frustrated on the ice as they struggled to mount their normal sustained pressure on their opposition goaltender, and instead found the Mustangs using that same tactic against them. Aleksi Toivonen stood on his head all game long but the sustained attack of the Mustangs at the time in the second period proved too good in the end. That, and of course the exceptional exploits of Liam Hughes between their own pipes.
 
When the final siren sounded, it was the Mustangs bench that cleared, threw away all their equipment and were jumping up and down with joy. It was the hard-working Brave players who slumped down and hands on heads and tired bewildered looks. The ultimate treble glory just slipping through their fingers at the final stand.  But no matter, the boys played hard and put everything into it and ultimately did Canberra proud. They will just have to settle for a brace of trophies for the season instead of three.
 
Season 2023 comes to a close and the Brave can look back on another successful year overall:

• Championship runners-up
• H Newman Reid Trophy winners
• Rurak Conference Trophy winners

Well done to everyone involved with the organisation and the team, from the volunteers and sponsors to the fans, coaches and players. Everyone deserves a good break until the circus comes back to town next year and we do it all again.
 
A special thank you to the Caribou Kingston and Leeroy Petersen for coming on board as naming right sponsor this season and providing the Brave hockey community a home away from home when we are not at the Brave Cave.


Photo: Caribou Kingston's Leeroy Petersen at the 2023 AIHL Finals in Melbourne - by Phil Taylor