North Stars 2 @ Bears 6

The Sydney Bears returned home to Penrith Ice Palace after their successful road trip to Perth last weekend. They have recent memory of their next opponent, the Newcastle North Stars. 2 weeks ago in Newcastle, the North Stars dominated the Bears in Newcastle, winning 8-3. Would it be the same again on Saturday May 30?

Minus a couple of defencemen, the Bears lineup was mostly unchanged from the previous encounter in Newcastle. The North Stars were starting their local goal tender Joshua Broekman while the Bears threw Kamil Jarina back in net after his shutout & shootout win weekend in Perth. Which Bears lineup would turn up for this game?

A healthy crowd and a new online audio stream would find out which Bears team showed up to play - the Oh Yeah Bears or the Big Bad Bears?

The first period opened with a Bears penalty 70 seconds into the game and a North Stars powerplay. As would happen during the game on several occasions with both teams, it would be hard to work out which team had the man advantage. A few minutes later, the Bears penalty kill unit would go into action again.

After some lead up work from Lee Turner & Richard Tesarik, captain Michael Schlamp was awarded the first goal with 7 minutes remaining in the first period. A couple of minutes later, Richard Tesarik was again hard at work around the net to give countryman Ales Padelek the second goal of the period. The Bears would go into the first intermission leading 2-0.

The Bears have experienced first hand the firepower that the Newcastle forwards have up front, 32 seconds into the period, Luke Moffatt scored for the visitors to open the North Stars' account for the game with helpers from fellow imports Geordie Wudrick and Jan Safar. Minutes later, Matt Wetini equalised with help from Wudrick and John F Kennedy Jr.

With the scores level, the fans at the Bearsden bearly had time to breathe. 14 seconds after the Wetini goal, Tommy Cooney put the Bears a goal ahead again at the far end with a nice shot through Broekeman's 5 hole. The Bears would take the 3-2 lead into the second intermission.

Earlier in the season, the Bears were not known for their good third period. It was important for them to show up and show up they did. Joe Harcharik dazzled another goal near the midway point of the period to put the home team up by 2 goals. As students of the game know, a 2 goal lead is a dangerous one in hockey. Who would score next?

Schlamp.

With just under 4 minutes to go, captain Schlamp took advantage of one of many turnovers by either team. Zooming down the ice, the skipper had a breakaway with only goalie Broekman to beat. Burying the puck in the back of the net, Schlamp's men had almost completed the job in front of the home fans against quality opposition.

Try as they might, the North Stars had no answers for the Bears that converted to points since the 11th minute of the 2nd period. The officials kept their whistles in their pockets with no powerplay chances in the 3rd period despite an encounter between Richard Tesarik & John F Kennedy Jr (Tesarik won that battle).

The exclamation point on the win was added by Lee Turner with 39 seconds to go to make the final score 6-2 to the Oh Yeah Bears. The turnaround in 2 weeks was complete and the Bears quite rightly were pleased with the result.

Naturally less pleased with the Bears win was North Stars head coach Andrew Petrie.“I honestly thought the Bears played really well,” Petrie said. “I think they’re a much better team then their early results would indicate. They had a couple of fortunate goals early but I can’t fault the boys for effort. In terms of commitment I thought we were hundred percent from start to finish. [The Bears] had most of their breakaway opportunities when we were trying to force a comeback so you have to take chances when you’re trying to get back into a game,”.

Meanwhile, Bears goalie Kamil Jarina was a happy Bear after his third win in a row. “North Stars have a very good team with strong shots, We have to be careful how we handle those and today we did. The guys played hard in our zone; they wanted to help me so I have to say thank you to them.”

Final Bears scorer of the evening Lee Turner summed up the game simply . “I thought the boys played really well; we won every battle,” Turner said. “I think we out-skated them tonight which is what the coaches wanted us to do and I think it just really showed in the game.”

Import forward Ales Padelek's thoughts on the game were even simpler but to the point: "It was a good game. They got no chances. We didn't make too many mistakes. We scored 6 goals & they scored 2. That's it." Making his AIHL debut against the North Stars 2 weeks ago, the Czech Republic import is still getting into the swing of life & hockey Bears style in Australia. "It's good fun."

Both teams had the advantage of only 1 game across the weekend with this game being the Bears' 11th game of the season. Both teams play the 2014 AIHL Champions, the Melbourne Mustangs at their respective homes (Newcastle on Saturday, Penrith on Sunday). The Bears have now claimed the high profile scalps of Perth Thunder (twice) and Newcastle North Stars who were first & second respectively on the competition table at the time of their losses to the Bears.

Story by Eric Brook
Additional Reporting by Tina Girdler
Photo by Injected Ideas Photography