Ice edge Mustangs in derby shootout thriller

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The Melbourne Ice edged out their archrivals the MOAT: Melbourne Mustangs in a nail biting, penalty-laden match in front of a sold out Medibank Icehouse on Saturday night.
 
After 50 minutes of fast, aggressive and controversial play, it took a shootout to split the two teams with the Ice finding the winner in the fourth round.
 
The game lived up to the pre-match hype as both teams sought to assert themselves as contenders for the 2014 Goodall Cup.
 
Melbourne Ice, coming off a brutal 9-2 defeat last week, had a lot to prove, and their line-up was bolstered by the return of their World Championships representatives.
 
The Mustangs carried the momentum from their emphatic 6-3 win last week into the game but simply didn’t manage to bury the puck into the net often enough as they outshot their arch-rivals 38-29.
 
Mustangs alternate captain and Mighty Roos representative, Brendan McDowell, continued his form from Serbia, opening the scoring at 12:37 in the first, after a pass from Andrew Fitzgerald exposed the Ice’s defence.
 
Early in the second, the Ice gained the ascendency, with captain Lliam Webster and import Jeff Smith shooting the Ice into the lead.
 
Webster was happy to be back on AIHL ice after returning from the IIHF D2A World Championships.
 
“[The] coaches were really happy with how it came together,” he said. “It was a good performance.”
 
The Mustangs managed a power-play goal themselves with Troy Robertson tying the game at 2-2 at 9:49 in the second. This would be the last goal, despite strong chances from both teams.
 
The Ice’s Gustaf Huth and Mustangs’ Michael James were the saviours for their respective teams on multiple occasions, making clutch saves and ensuring the game would have to go into a shootout.
 
The third period was controversy filled and proved to be a gripping prospect for the capacity crowd despite no goals being scored.
 
The Mustangs penalty kill unit was working overtime when they faced five minutes shorthanded after Martin Kutek copped a major penalty and game misconduct for high sticking.
 
“Our penalty kill was unbelievable,” Mustangs Coach Brad Vigon said.  “I’ve got to give all the credit to the guys, and Mikey [James] standing on his head, clearing out rebounds and things like that. At the end of the day you’re not going to win games when you’re spending that much time in the box.”
 
At 2:02 remaining in the final period, Jack Wolgemuth looked to score of a huge slapshot. However, the goal was overturned due to an off-the-puck incident, where Joey Hughes was ejected from the game for kicking.
 
“It’s probably not a smart move on Joey’s part,” Vigon said. “I had a bit of a chat to him and he feels bad about it. The guys played a fantastic game. It looked like we pretty much had it won there but for a call that I’ve never, ever seen before in my 35-40 years of hockey. It’s a tough way to lose.”
 
The Mustangs managed to kill off the ensuing penalty and force a shootout.
 
The Mustangs’ had the early lead with burly Swedish import Viktor Gibbs-Sjödin beating Huth to chants of “Viktor, Viktor, Viktor”. The twists and turns weren’t done there though with the Ice’s Webster levelling in the third round. In the first round of sudden death, Matt Armstrong scored what would be the winning goal with Brendan McDowell unable to sneak the puck past Huth.
 
Webster said Melbourne Ice has a simple philosophy for doing well this season.
 
“We’ve had a big pre-season, we’ve worked on a lot of culture inside the room,” the Ice skipper said. “We want very few penalties, very responsible plays and a responsible team. So if we can do that, I think we’ll win a lot of games.”

* Photos by M.J Wragg Photography