Week 9 Recap: Thunder take back-to-back wins against Northstars

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Photo: David Tate

Brave hold on to defeat Bears

The Canberra Brave have held on to finish off the Sydney Bears 5-3 at home on Saturday night.

It was a vital win for Canberra to keep pace with the Northstars and Lightning in the Rurak Conference.

Austin Cangelosi’s goal was the difference in a fairly even first period which finished 1-0. It was the Brave who would put the foot to the floor in the second, outshooting Sydney 17-12 and resulting in a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes. Tommy Steven, Jake Ratcliffe and Mitch Henning all scored for Canberra to set a commanding lead at the final change.

The Bears battled back in the third with Lucas Hermann adding his 9^th of the year to get the Bears on the board and break Aleksi Toivonen’s shutout bid. However, Casey Kubara re-established the Brave 4-goal lead a minute later which would see them eventually run out 5-3 winners, despite a late pair of goals from Ryan Annesley.

The Brave host the Mustangs in a double header in the nation’s capital next week while the Bears host the Thunder and Ice at Macquarie.  
 
Lightning beat Mustangs in rematch

The Brisbane Lightning have downed the Mustangs 4-1 in a rematch in the Sunshine State on Saturday night, to keep pace with the Newcastle Northstars.

The Lightning jumped out to a 3-goal lead in the first period and never looked back. Patrick Popovics scored his 6^th of the year just nine minutes in to make it 1-0. He was joined by Batu Gendunov and Arum Rapchuk for a 3-0 Brisbane lead, until Max Astafiyev scored his first goal since 2022 to make it 3-1 at the first intermission.

Despite 5 chances each on the power play, the game would not see another goal until the final two minutes when Gendunov added his second for a 4-1 Brisbane victory.

Meger stopped 19 of 20 in the win, while Logan Flodell made 29 stops on 33 shots at the other end.

Brisbane host the Ice Dogs on Saturday night while the Mustangs travel to Canberra for a double-header.
 
Ice dispatch Ice Dogs but need overtime to get past Rhinos

The Melbourne Ice have taken 5 of a possible 6 points from the weekend, after a 6-3 win over the Ice Dogs but needed overtime to get past a determined Rhinos outfit 4-3.

The Ice were held scoreless through 20 minutes by a competitive Ice Dogs outfit. However, the dam broke in the second with the Ice piling on 5 unanswered goals. Recently returned Roman Kraemer got his first of the year, as well as two from Joey Hughes and one each from Raymond Khalil and Spencer Nave, with his first AIHL goal.

The Dogs offered resistance in the third as Alex Macdonald continued his hot streak and his 10^th goal of the season. However, Austin Albrecht made it 6 goals for the Ice for an eventual 6-3 win, with late goals to Billy Cliff and Stepan Olkin for Sydney not enough in Cam Todd's 150th AIHL game.

The Ice were tested from the get-go against the Rhinos at Erina on Sunday, after a breakaway goal to Mackenzie Bolger got the home side a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Aziz Baazzi made it a 2-0 lead early in the second and an upset was brewing on the Central Coast. That was until the Ice tied the game thanks to goals from Albrecht and Christian Pansino, heading into the final period of regulation 2-2.

Melbourne then took the lead for the first time with ten minutes to go via Albrecht, until Hayden Dawes tied it 3-3 on the power play just moments later setting up overtime.

Both teams had quality chances to finish the game in the 3-on-3 period, until it was finally ended by Kraemer getting the Ice out of jail for a 4-3 win.

Tatsunoshin Ishida stopped 36/39 for Melbourne while Anand Oberoi made 32 saves from 36 shots for the Central Coast.

The Ice head on the road again for games against Newcastle and the Bears, while the Rhinos have a weekend off.



Thunder take back-to-back wins over Northstars

The Perth Thunder have stretched their winning streak to 5-in-a-row with a pair of wins over the Newcastle Northstars at Perth Ice Arena.

A scoreless first period was broken up in the second period by a short-handed goal from Rob Haselhurst, making him the all-time leader in goals among AIHL defencemen and giving Perth a 1-0 lead.

He would also be followed with another shorty from Ville Tenosalmi 4 minutes later, to put the hosts up 2-0 after two.

A tense final 20 minutes ensued with both teams locking down the neutral zone, until Daniel Berno broke through on the power play with 8 minutes remaining. It went goal for goal in the final 5 minutes, with Yu Hikosaka and Kyler Matthews scoring before Kieren Webster added an empty net mark to seal the win for Perth 4-2.

Berno continued his scoring streak in game two on the Sunday, opening the account for Newcastle late in the first on the power play. Webster made it 4 games in a row with a goal in response, for a 1-1 scoreline at the break.

A scoreless second period with two power plays each was followed up by Francis Drolet putting the Northstars ahead 2-1 with 12 minutes remaining. Newcastle looked to steal the win until Ben Berard capitalised on a power play with 6 minutes to go, to send the game to overtime.

Despite Newcastle pouring on 7 shots neither team could find the back of the net after 5 minutes of 3-on-3, and it headed to a shootout.

It took 9 rounds to settle the points, after Jeremiah Addison scored on each of his three attempts with his last being the decider sending the Perth crowd home happy with a win.

Perth travel to Sydney for a game with the Bears followed by a rematch with the Northstars in Newcastle on Sunday. Newcastle also play the Ice at home on Saturday.


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