Brave battle to beat Mustangs

The CBR Brave defeated the Melbourne Mustangs 5-4 at the Medibank Icehouse on Sunday afternoon, making the defending premiers’ chances to retain the Goodall Cup in 2015 all the more difficult.

The Brave were eager to make amends for their tough shootout loss on Saturday night and came out firing.

With two quick goals, they jumped out to an early lead and managed to withstand the Mustangs pressure as they endeavoured to get back into the game.

David Dunwoodie’s early goal in the third period gave the Brave a commanding 4-1 lead, which the Mustangs pulled back to 4-3.

However, an immediate reply from Stephen Blunden, who returned to the ice after being rested in the previous game, was the game winner and proved too much for the Mustangs to chase down.

A late short-handed goal gave the Mustangs some hope, but they were unable to level the scores.

Not for the first time this season, it was a case of too little too late for the Mustangs, who recorded their seventh loss of the season by a solitary goal.

Melbourne Mustangs coach Brad Vigon was again left shaking his head about how his instructions were not being carried out on the ice.

“I did feel that the energy was lacking right off the bat,” Vigon said. “For some reason we just did not come switched on. We talked about being switched on and for whatever reason we didn’t come out that way and that lead to us getting behind. [We] gave ourselves a pretty good shot there in the third, but things didn’t end up going our way.”

CBR Brave assistant coach Dave Rogina was pleased his side had started more strongly than they had in the previous game.

“[It was] a little closer than I’d have liked, a little scary there at the end but a win’s a win,” Rogina said. “[We] came out fast today, took off right where we left off from the second and third periods yesterday.”

Fresh from a three point night, forward David Dunwoodie also noted there was a lot more energy in the team compared to their shootout loss the night before. 

“We played a lot better than yesterday” he said. “[It was a] more consistent three periods. [The] boys came out firing after the loss yesterday.”

The Brave were very pleased to see young go Aleksi Toivonen attain his first win in the AIHL.

“He did well to come in and make some saves when he had to,” said Rogina. “[He’s] doing a great job, stepping up to the plate and helping the top line, taking some pressure off them which is really good.”

The Brave felt it was important to show up from the opening puck drop and did just that.

In his return to the ice, Blunden made an immediate impact, tipping in the opening goal for the Brave the third minute of the game.

Seconds later they had doubled their lead with Harrison Byers pouncing on a loose puck.

This stirred the Mustangs into action, and Vadim Virjassov soon brought the deficit back to one goal.

The Mustangs had further chances to tie it up towards the end of the period, but their power play continued to struggle, and they let slip another 38 seconds of a 5-on-3 advantage.

With two goals from Dunwoodie, and a 4-1 lead early in the third period, the Brave appeared to be in full control of the game, but the Mustangs would not go down without a fight.

Tom Voller put away a rebound from an Andrew Belic shot and then Corey Banfield narrowed the gap once again with his first goal in the AIHL.

However, the comeback was short-lived, as under a minute later Blunden regained the momentum for his team and put the Brave ahead by two

A late shorthanded goal from Brendan McDowell gave the Mustangs one more chance to steal something from the game but they were unable to find the net in the dying minutes of the game.

Although the Mustangs’ seventh one-goal defeat of the season, in the defending premiers’ favour is the fact they have only played 16 games, three less than the Adrenaline, Bears and Brave who are all competing for the final playoff spot.

Next week, the Brave travel to Adelaide to take on the Adrenaline, while the Mustangs travel to New South Wales, taking on the North Stars on Saturday and Ice Dogs on Sunday.