The CBR Brave have come away from a double header weekend in Perth with a pair of wins at Perth Ice Arena.

The series had its fair share of exciting moments and controversy but the end result showed why the Brave are still battling for the rights to be judged as the league’s best team, after a record-breaking season a year ago.

The pair of games both finished showing the scoreboard reading 5-1 in favour of the Canberra side. Perth Thunder head coach Dave Ruck commented on the way his team handled the reigning Goodall cup champions.

“We had a lot of opportunity out there, we had breakaways, we had back door chances, and we just lacked the finish. And when we start to get behind in games you end up taking chances but you also have to bury them to make a difference on the scoreboard,” Ruck said.

The first game saw the Thunder chasing the game early with the Brave taking a quick 1-0 lead just three minutes into the game, off the stick of Brayden Low. Before the period had ended it was 2-0, after the Thunder gave up a short-handed goal with six minutes left before heading into the second.

The second period was at least a scoreless one, with neither team registering many shots in the process before heading into the final frame. With the puck dropped in period three, the Brave took a quick 3-0 lead before a minute had transpired off the clock as Jordan Draper picked up his second of the night.

From there the Thunder just seemed to lose momentum and lacked the intensity needed to claw their way back into the game. And as the team has seen before this season, their offensive issues again continued at home as the clock wound down in the third, with the Thunder yet to score a goal at home in regulation this season.

With the score now pushed to 5-0 it was Kevin Veilleux that managed to bury Perth’s first regulation goal at home with just 14 seconds remaining in the game, with the final score at 5-1 in favour of the Brave.

Ruck said after the game he was confident in his team’s ability however, to continue to turn their season around after what has been a tough start so far at six games in. 

“I still think we’ve got a good team here, but we’ve struggled so far to put a full squad together and find the chemistry to create much. You can’t make excuses, but I’ve at least seen glimpses of what we expect to see from this line-up this year.”

Unfortunately, that rebound did not come the following night for the Thunder with the result looking the same on the scoreboard, however there were times in which the team looked to be gaining traction throughout the second contest.

Louick Marcotte gave Perth the lead in the first period and they were able to battle on with the score at 1-0 into the locker room to start the second. The Thunder continued to battle throughout much of that period too, however the Brave managed to bury the opportunities awarded to them as they had done throughout the weekends matchups, and in the last minute of the second stanza the Canberra side were able to find the back of the net twice.

 

Once again with just under a minute to go, it would come from Hayden Dawes. And again the goal was scored in controversial fashion, as it appeared the Brave had put the puck in the net after the clock had hit zero, but the goal was awarded after a heated debate between officials and coaching staff from both sides.

“That was a really bad break to go against us when it’s a close game,” Ruck said.

“That video is available to see so I don’t have to say much about the time running out and the puck going in. But that really took the wind out of our sails at that point going into the third.”

 “And credit to Canberra, they are a great team and they managed to expose us out there this weekend. They had their feet moving quicker than us and the puck was moving quicker than us. When you start chasing the game like we did we just lost the energy and the momentum to keep playing and we have to address that.”

The final period of the weekend saw the Brave continue to find the back of the net as Darge, Draper and Kambeitz each managed to put a nail in the Thunder coffin, giving their team the sweep over the weekend’s double header.

Head coach Rob Starke credited his team’s ability to stick to their systems and play the way they need to have success.

“Perth travel weekend is always a challenge for us, and our depth helped us out with that this weekend. Both games were tight through two periods and both games we managed to find a way to pull away,” Starke said.