Bears take final Sydney Battle win over Ice Dogs

The Sydney Bears have rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Sydney Ice Dogs 5-3 in the final Sydney Battle of 2017 and claim the Wilson Cup. Despite trailing for two periods the Bears dug deep in the third period and claimed a morale-boosting win in front of a vocal crowd at the Macquarie Ice Rink on Friday night.

More than the score, the Bears's celebrate their victory. Photo: Peter Podlaha. 

“It was a character win for the boys” said Sydney Bears Coach Ron Kuprowsky.

 “Falling behind early – it was a big effort, everybody pulled together and we took it home with a big third period.

“It was great to see all sides of the rink filling up, the boys were pumped and the closer we got to game time there where hardly any seats left – it show Friday night hockey definitely works here.” said Kuprowsky.

In front of a big crowd at the Macquarie Ice rink, the Ice Dogs came into the game red-hot favourites, focused on their pursuit of a top four Finals spot, and jumped out of the gates early. Lead by Captain Scott Stephenson the Ice Dogs opened the scoring in the third minute of the game and kept all of the momentum, heading into the first intermission leading 1-0.

The Ice Dogs started the second period right where they left off in the first: peppering in the Bears net with shots and throwing their bodies around in a bruising encounter. Young Ice Dogs’ defenceman Daniel Pataky extended the home team’s lead when he pounced on a lost puck in the slot to give his side a 2-0 lead.   

Daniel Pataky and his team putting the fire back into the game. Photo: Peter Podlaha. 

However as the clock wound down in the second period, the Bears found their feet and two goals to import forward Jackson Brewer in the space of 30 seconds got the visitors right back into the contest.

The Ice Dogs answered right back, and with just eight seconds left on the clock, their defencemen Andrew White found the back of the net, giving the home side 3-2 lead into the third period.

Sydney Bears’ goalie Anthony Kimlin who has spent much of the season injured was the difference maker in the third and final period – stopping all 13 shots – on his way to stopping 38 shots on the night. At the other end of the ice, Ice Dogs’ goalie Damien Ketlo had an uncharacteristically tough night in net, allowing five goals on 32 shots.

The Bears’ leadership group really stepped up in the third period: forward Tommy Landa tied the game 3-3 with a brilliant solo effort, before Richard Tesarik scored anther with just over six minutes to play. Defenseman Nick Rivait added an insurance goal for the Bears with two minutes remaining and the Bears skated away 5-3 winners.

It was an important morale-boosting win for the Bears, who have been plagued by injuries and inconstant performances in 2017.

“We’ve had few injuries to key players and few guys not make it to the end of the season, said Kuprowsky after the game.

“The message (to our fans) is don’t give up hope, we’re turning up every night and plugging away, we’re going to get better and keep it alive.”

For the Ice Dogs the loss on home ice was be a bitter pill to swallow. With only six games remaining in the AIHL regular season their chances of the making the AIHL Finals have all but evaporated with the Sydney Battle loss – they now rely entirely on the results of other games going their way to have any chance of making the playoffs.

John Wilson awards the Wilson Cup to Bears' Captain Michael Schlamp. Photo: Peter Podlaha 

With this win, the 10^th anniversary Wilson Cup was awarded to the Bears for 2017. The Wilson Cup is an exhibition tournament trophy, typically played in pre-season between the Sydney Bears, Sydney Ice Dogs and Newcastle Northstars in round-robin format. As several players from each of those teams were playing in the Australian National team immediately prior to the AIHL season, and the two Sydney teams moving to a new rink, for 2017 the Wilson Cup was awarded using regulation season games.

The Ice Dogs now travel south to the Capital this Saturday to play the CBR Brave at 5.30pm (AEST), while the Bears, who had a busy first half of the season, have two weekends break before they meet the Adrenaline in Adelaide for a double-header on the 19^th of August.