Bears best Mustangs in shootout.

Sydney Bears come away with the win in a close game. Photo: Phil Taylor.

The Sydney Bears have picked up a vital two points towards their 2018 AIHL campaign, with a 3-2 shootout win over the Melbourne Mustangs at the O’Brien Group Arena.

In a physical affair from the get-go, the Mustangs had the better quality chances despite being outshot 12 to 5 in the first period. The period was marked with several hard checks, most notably Michael McMahon standing up Charlie Adams at the Mustangs blueline early in the game.

Both Anthony Kimlin and Petri Pitkanen were on their toes with several key saves for their respective clubs, but it would be the Mustangs who would strike first.

Pat O’Kane added his team-leading 6^th goal of the season to break the deadlock 4:35 in to the game, to put the home side up 1-0. O’Kane is now riding a 7-game point streak with a 1.4 PPG average.

It was defenceman Troy Robertson who would get the 2^nd goal of the afternoon for the Mustangs just 75 seconds later, to make the game 2-0 and put the Bears on the back foot early. It was Robertson’s 2^nd goal of the season and the 7^th of his career. The only other time Robertson has had more than one goal in a season was his rookie year in 2011, where he notched 4.

The Mustangs headed into the 1^st intermission up 2-0, despite being outshot 12-5 by the Bears in the first frame.

Penalties were the story of a feisty 2^nd period and the Bears were on the receiving end of them for the majority of the period. Despite three opportunities on the man advantage, the Mustangs could not capitalise and Kimlin kept the door shut.

It was then the visitors’ turn to go on the offensive as Etienne Du Toit scored his first goal as a Sydney Bear, to claw the deficit back to 2-1. After Graeme Strukoff and Vlad Rubes both had shots saved by a scrambling Pitkanen, the rebound trickled out to an unmanned Du Toit who buried it to keep the Bears within reach of the home team.

A chippy second period ended with Graeme Strukoff tangling with Brad Apps after a late shot on Pitkanen at the end of the period, but the resultant penalties saw the Bears unable to take advantage of the power play early in the third.

They didn’t fail the second time though, as Michael Burns buried a drive past Pitkanen after Paul Lazzarotto was sent to the box for a hook, to give the Bears a power play goal and even the score 2-2 with 7:59 remaining.

The Mustangs unloaded 13 shots on Kimlin for the period but could not find a way past the Mighty Roos’ netminder. Kimlin made save after save including the save of the game on Ben Davies, who had snuck in behind the Bears defence only to have the left toe of Kimlin deny him.

With regulation unable to split the points between the teams, the shootout eventually would.

Burns proved to be the shootout winner for the Bears. After being denied by Pitkanen on his first attempt, Burns didn’t miss on his second, slowing his roll before beating Pitkanen five-hole to seal a win for the 8^th placed Bears in the 4^th round of the shootout.

The Bears came away with two points and a much-needed win, which also marked long time Bears veteran Adrian Esposito’s 250^th AIHL game.

Pitkanen stopped 28 of 30 shots in regulation to Kimlin’s 30 from 32 shots faced.

The Bears and Mustangs meet again next week in Sydney on Sunday 27 at 5pm in their final game before the AIHL All-Star break.

Catch all the excitement in this close match up! Grab your tickets for the Sydney game: http://aihl.net/1r5vgPV