The Mustangs battled from two-goals down in the third period to defeat CBR Brave 4-3 in a shootout at Phillip Swimming & Ice Skating Centre on Sunday night.
Having lost due to a last minute goal on Saturday night, the Mustangs were staring down the possibility of heading back to Melbourne without any points due to a huge performance from the Brave’s Josh Unice turning away 38 of 41 shots.
In a third period Brave coach Brad Hunt labelled “horrible”, goals to Joey and Vinnie Hughes gave the Mustangs enough room to inflict the Brave’s first home loss in 2015.
It was a good old-fashioned arm wrestle as both teams shared possession equally throughout the first period. But it was CBR Brave’s leading scorer Stephen Blunden who took his opportunity, scoring his first shorthanded goal of the season.
Kelly Geoffrey following up soon after to give the home team a 2-0 lead at the end of the first.
Mustangs coach Brad Vigon said he didn’t think the score reflected the play in the first period, particularly when the Mustangs outshot the Brave 11-4.
“It gets pretty disheartening,” Vigon told Mustangs Media. “We came out really, really strong; we had all the pressure, all of the puck, all of the chances and to come out of that period down 2-0 was pretty hard to swallow.”
Vigon would not have to wait long for his side to get on the board with import Viktor Gibbs Sjödin scoring just over 90 seconds into the second period.
However, Kelly Geoffrey quickly responded for the Brave restoring the two-goal lead.
When the Hughes brothers scored their goals midway through the third, the Mustangs appeared to be finish the stronger of the two teams but were unable to snatch the lead late in the period, sending the game to a tense shootout.
The Brave had to work hard in defence, dealing with 41 shots. Coach Hunt was disappointed by the ill-discipline his team had shown.
“We lost our discipline and we played their game,” Hunt said. “That’s what they were trying to do; trying to rough us up a little bit, get us off our game and get us pissed off and send us to the box. It worked perfectly for them. We fell straight into their trap and, you know, we give them credit - their game plan worked and we fell for it.”
In the shootout, goals to Gibbs Sjödin and Drew Akins gave the Mustangs two points from their trip to Canberra.
“I’m so proud of the boys the way they got in and kept crawling back,” Vigon said. “We didn’t give up. So that’s one really good thing I see with the boys right now.”
For the Brave, Hunt could see a bright side as well.
“On a positive note, we got four points out of six,” Hunt said. “We left two points on the table which we should have had, which none of us are happy about. We gave them two points just because we were undisciplined. We played horrible in the third – there’s no other word for it.”
Next week, CBR Brave will face the Adelaide Adrenaline at the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre on Saturday before travelling to Newcastle to face the North Stars the following day. The Mustangs will return home to take on the Melbourne Ice in the season’s second Melbourne Derby.