With their first goal and first win in the AIHL against the Sydney Ice Dogs a week ago, the CBR Brave truly announced their presence on the AIHL landscape. Defeating the 2013 champions 6-2, the scenes of jubilation at the Phillip Ice Skating Centre was clear for everyone to see as players, staff and fans embraced for the first of what they hope is to be many times.
At the centre of that huddle was Mark Rummukainen, one of the chief architects of the Brave. Rummukainen and local businessmen Jamie Wilson and Peter Chamberlain combined their talents to create the club in a town that has always had support, but rarely results. Rummukainen said the victory was amazing to be part of, and justified all the work the Brave had to do in the off-season to join the league.
“It would have been easy to let it die and move on with my life,” Rummukainen said. “I’ve got a young family and a business, but I just thought that I couldn’t let it end like this. There were too many guys that wanted to play and we need somewhere for ACT kids to aspire to play one day. I saw this as an opportunity to do something the way we wanted it done.”
“I'd just like to ice a competitive team for every game, a team that plays hard for each other and the fans. We had a pretty poor season last year, and the history of the Canberra Knights wasn’t too strong, so we figured we could start something else up. It’s all happened very quickly, we’ve got a new club, got everything happening and we want to build a new culture.”
That attitude was something that attracted Jamie Wilson to the club. The founder and director of communications agency Coordinate said that it was Rummukainen’s passion and dedication to the club that made him excited to offer any expertise he could.
“I heard about the collapse of the Canberra Knights through several media outlets,” Wilson said. “It was only when I heard Mark on radio and his drive to keep the team alive, that I decided to make contact with him and see if I could offer any support.”
“He is a great leader. He has a never-say-die attitude, which is evident given what he has achieved in getting the team back on the ice. Everyone has an enormous amount of respect for him and when Mark speaks, the players and everyone around him takes notice. He is the ultimate professional and he has been fundamental in shaping the culture of the Brave in our foundation year. If it wasn’t for Mark, ice hockey wouldn’t exist in Canberra.”
Saturday night’s maiden victory for the Brave proves that hockey is alive and well in Canberra. Speaking immediately after the game to theAIHL.com, Rummukainen said he was proud of the win and what the club had achieved in only a few weeks.
“I was really pumped to get the first win, not only of our season, but for the club’s history,” Rummukainen said. “There weren’t too many wins last year with the Knights, so it’s especially sweet to have the fresh start with a new club and get a win early.”
However, after years playing without success for the Canberra Knights, Mark refuses to be carried away by the win.
“We’ve won one game,” Rummukainen said. “It doesn’t matter who you play, if you win a game against a bad team or a decent team, you can’t get too far ahead of yourselves. We’ve won games in the past and then lost 24 straight.”
In the 14-year AIHL history of the Canberra Knights, the foundation club was never able to qualify for a finals series, let alone taste Goodall Cup victory. However, there are hopes that the Brave can quickly change that.
“Playoffs would be huge and to have success there would be even better,” Rummukainen said. “We want to create a culture of playing and winning for the other people wearing your jersey, and to have a successful year as an organization so in September we can turn around and say we did it.”
The Brave are back on the ice this weekend, playing the Adrenaline at home on Saturday before taking their first road trip on Sunday, heading up to Newcastle to play the North Stars.
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BEARS
RHINOS
ICE DOGS
ADRENALINE
THUNDER
ICE
BRAVE
LIGHTNING
NORTHSTARS
MUSTANGS
