After a number of weekends away from the ice affected their position on the Australian Ice Hockey League Ladder, the third-placed CBR Brave travelled on Sunday 10 July to face the second-placed Sydney Bears for the final time in the regular season.

The Brave were looking to get back onto the winner’s list and to tie up the season series against their Sydney rivals, while the Bears were looking to inflict the Brave’s fourth loss of the season and consolidate second place on the ladder.

After playing the first half of the season with only one Import, the Brave welcomed Garret Cockerill to the line-up. Cockerill is a veteran defenceman, with extensive experience in Northern American hockey leagues – and is just coming off a successful season in the East Coast Hockey League with the Reading Royals. He arrived at the perfect time for the Brave, as they lost a key defenceman Bayley Kubara to injury and were looking to bolster their presence at the Blue Line.

The First Period proved to be a close affair, with early chances to both teams. Brave Forward Mitch Henning finally opened the scoring after pouncing on a rebound from the pads of Bears goaltender Glen Forbes-White.

The Bears quickly tied the scores after youngster Xander Wardlaw accepted a long-range pass, putting him behind the Brave’s defenders and he was able to beat Brave keeper Aleksi Toivonen.

The Brave scored the final goal of the period, with speedster Declan Bronte piercing the Bears defence to regain the lead for his side.

In the second period, it was the Brave who struck first – barely a minute from the puck drop Wehebe Darge scored the first of his two goals for the game with a forceful shot into the back of the net. Seconds later another goal was added to the Brave’s tally, after a breakaway from Forward Tyler Kubara saw his shot ricochet off the goal post, falling perfectly to Joey Hughes who converted with a perfect mid-range shot.

Tyler Kubara was to score his own goal with seven and a half minutes remaining in the period. Hard work to retrieve the puck behind the Bears net by Andy Camenzind led to a pass to Tyler Kubara who was waiting to convert a short-range shot in front of goal. This made the score 5 goals to 1. 

The Brave were by no means finished adding to their total, and Andy Camenzind converted a one-on-one chance against the Bears Goaltender following a long, accurate pass from Brave defenceman Mike Giorgi. Following a face off seconds later, Wehebe Darge scored his second – a well-worked play by Casey Kubara, who broke through the Bears defensive line and slotted a pass to Darge for the tap in.

The second period score blitz was finished by import Mario Trabucco, who received a pass at the Blue line and skated through the Bears Defence to net a shot from the hash marks. 

This wild second period saw the ejection of the Brave’s Hughes and Bears Alex Gauthier for fighting, and saw the Brave totally dominate ice and the scoring – netting six goals from ten shots for the Period and lead 8 goals to 1.

The Bears changed their goaltender at the start of the third period, but the chances continued to come for the Brave. At the other end, the Brave defence led by Toivonen stood strong and shut down any of the infrequent scoring chances. 

The only addition to the score for the third period was a second goal for the Brave’s Henning, who managed to poke a shot into the net after a scramble at the goal face.

The final score was a 9 goals to 1 win for the CBR Brave, with a lop-sided 37 to 17 shot count showing the difference between the two teams on the night.

For injured defenceman Bayley Kubara, playing on the larger ice at the Macquarie Centre is very different to the Brave Cave.

“It’s tough in this Rink. The puck bounces a lot and the Boards are really bouncy too. It’s hard to put multiple passes together and get into the groove – but I think after our initial power play (early in the first period) things began to click and we were moving a lot better.”

“Tonight we managed to score on the opportunities, where sometimes we don’t manage to put them away. The puck bounced the right way for us tonight – which is good!”

After over a month away, this weekend the Brave will return to the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre for two games against the Melbourne Mustangs. It will be the first time the Brave will face the team from Melbourne this season.

For Bayley Kubara and the Brave, the Mustangs are a relatively unknown prospect this year. “I know they’ve got two great imports who have played in some pretty high Leagues and some good local guys..”

The answer to the Brave coming away with maximum points, however is straightforward: “I think if we just play our own game in Canberra in the small rink, we’ll be fine..”

Written by: Scott Stevenson

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