The Adelaide Adrenaline have claimed an all important road victory with an 8-5 win over the CBR Brave at the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre on Sunday night.

(The man they call Aussie Joe, Josef Rezek, streaks away from two CBR Brave defenders. Credit – Paul Furness)

CBR Brave head coach Rob Starke was disappointed in the result, but pointed to the change of goalie playing a big part of the result. “Obviously a very disappointing result for us, we came up against a very strong goaltender, and he did the job” Starke said, “It was just a case of their goalie standing up and he deserves full credit. We will continue to play Brave hockey, we played an excellent hockey game tonight, and I believe we deserve better, but their goalie was the story tonight”

It was a tale of two teams this weekend with the CBR Brave taking the points on Saturday, only to succumb to a goaltending master class by Adelaide Adrenaline import goalie Matt Murphy, who stopped 62 shots for the away side.

After a back and forth first period, the game picked up immediately in second period with Adrenaline import forward Ales Kratoska gunning down the wing and slotting home the opening goal past young CBR Brave goalie Alex Tetreault, when it appeared that Tetreault had the near post well and truly closed off.

CBR Brave captain, Mark Rummukainen, took even less time to respond off the resulting centre ice face-off, entering the zone and launching a rocket from the blue line to beat Murphy. It capped off a significant weekend for the Brave’s blue line stalwart, who isn’t known for his goal scoring ability.

The Adrenaline threatened to run away with the game thanks to goals from Jake Riley, (his first AIHL point), Zach Boyle and Casey Babineau to extend the Adrenalines’ lead to 4-1 before the end of the second period.

The Brave were held to just the one goal in the second period, after some outstanding saves from Murphy, and it looked to be an almighty ask for the home team to bring this game back from the brink of defeat.

The Brave came back from the second intermission with Aleksi Toivonen between the pipes, in the hopes that they could stem the flow of Adelaide goals. The Brave looked dominant for the first half of the third period, and were rewarded with goals to Jan Safar and Brian Bales to bring the score back to 4-3. Ales Kratoska would steady the ship for the Adrenaline, with a red hot marker from the point, beating Aleksi Toivonen cleanly to stretch the lead to 5-3.

(A scrum in front of Matt Murphy, Adelaide Adrenaline Remy McGuinness and CBR Brave and former Adelaide Adrenaline about to be separated. Credit – Paul Furness)

The CBR Brave rolled the dice, by pulling Toivonen 3 times, but it would burn them each time with empty net goals to Casey Babineau, Zach Boyle and Greg Oddy. A pair of goals sandwiched between the Adrenaline empty netters from Geordie Wudrick restored some pride for the home side, but weren’t enough to stop the Brave being put to the sword by the Adrenaline.

Adelaide Adrenaline head coach Sami Mantere addressed the change in the team that sparked the win. “I think we really picked up on what we looking for yesterday, which was the mental side and a bit of toughness, grittiness” Mantere said, “Matt Murphy made a big difference, but it was also the team defence. Matt gives the defence a lot of confidence, the way he is playing