The CBR Brave defeated the Sydney Bears 7-1 in another dominant performance at the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre on Saturday night and remain on top of the AIHL ladder. The win capped off a milestone night for Brave captain, Mark Rummukainen’s celebrated his 300^th AIHL Game in front of a vocal home crowd.

(CBR Brave players celebrate another big win over the Bears and thank their fans for the support.Credit: Paul Furness)

CBR Brave Head Coach Rob Starke was pleased with his sides performance but acknowledged that they have room for improvement.

“We played a very high level game, but we didn’t play our A Game tonight, but at the same time it was still a very convincing victory which is a good sign”.

 “We have to elevate our game, go back to Brave hockey” said Starke “do the little things right and obviously we’re looking for a little bit more intensity and get our speed back into our game”.

Brave forward Tyler Kubara  broke the first period deadlock with 4:17 left in the opening term, recording his 50^th AIHL career point in the process. The goals started to flow for the Brave, Tyler Kubara scoring again to give the home side a 2-0 lead with just under 3 minutes left on the clock.

Geordie Wudrick got in on the action and extended the CBR Brave lead to 3-0 just before the first intermission.

The CBR Brave continued to assert their dominance after the break, scoring 3 minutes into the second period, through Brian Bales who gave the Brave a comfortable 4-0 lead. Just seconds later, Wehebe Darge scored his 100^th AIHL career goal to extend the Braves’ lead to 5-0.

The Sydney Bears goalie James Downie made a series of spectacular saves to deny the Brave an even larger lead, Downie was kept busy in net facing 31 shots on the night.

The Sydney Bears offense couldn’t find a way beat Brave goalie Aleksi Toivonen’s, and the Brave made them pay scoring again with just under 6 minutes left in the second period, to carry a significant 6-0 lead into the second intermission.     

The Bears emerged from the locker room for the third period with point to prove , as they looked to contain the Brave attack. James Downie again made several massive saves through to keep the score at 6-0, however a Jan Safar power play goal extended the lead to 7.

The Sydney Bears continued to grind, despite the score line, and were rewarded with just 2 minutes left to play in the game. Forward  Jackson Brewer cycled around the offensive zone, opened up shooting lain and sent a hard wrist shot over Aleksi Toivonen’s shoulder to give the visitors a consolation goal, Toivonen’s was solid in net for the home side stopping 21 shots.

Sydney Bears and AIHL debutant, Timothy Rye, reflected on the tough night for the Bears,

“We came back in the third and had a good period, it was a 1-1 score and if we could’ve kept it at that the whole game it would’ve been better, but unfortunately we got down a couple”.

Looking ahead, Rye was upbeat about the Bears next home game, “We just need to keep the intensity up, really forecheck hard, backcheck and make sure we protect our goalie”

The CBR Brave attack continued to assert its dominance with multi-point games from Wudrick, Darge, Safar and Tyler Kubara.

(CBR Brave forward, Wehebe Darge exits the defensive zone after defenders Matt Harvey and Dominic Jalbert clear the threat. Credit: Paul Furness)

The Sydney Bears will be on the hunt for competition points when they  host the Adelaide Adrenaline at the Macquarie Ice Rink on Sunday night. Meanwhile, the CBR Brave set their sights on the Melbourne Mustangs who come to the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre next Saturday, July 1.