The penultimate weekend of the 2015 AIHL regular season started for the Bears with the 4th Battle of Sydney against the Sydney Ice Dogs at the Liverpool Catholic Club on Saturday August 15. The Bears had won the previous game 10-3 at Penrith Ice Palace on July 4. The Ice Dogs had won the last game at LCC earlier in the season, albeit in a shootout. Before this game, the Bears still had a remote chance of making the finals while summer can't come soon enough for the Ice Dogs.
Regardless of the position of the two teams, the Battle of Sydney is always a tough game. While the Ice Dogs dominated in 2014, the Bears have dominated in 2015. The Bears have been where the Ice Dogs are this year albeit not as deep.
After the opening whistle, there was bearly (pun intended) time for fans to draw breath. After 7 seconds, the referee was already pointing at the Ice Dogs goal with a goal to Tomas Landa. If the scoreboard was working, it would have shown the score to be Bears 1-0 with 14.53 remaining in the first period.
Not long after the first goal, the referee was signalling another Bears goal! 2 goals in the first 29 seconds! Joe Harcharik reversed the order of the previous goal with an assist to Landa. Adrian Esposito was given the secondary assist on the goal.
After 2 goals in 29 seconds against them, were the floodgates going to open for the Ice Dogs? Quite surprisingly, the score would remain 2-0 Bears at the end of the first period despite 3 penalties against the Ice Dogs and 2 against the Bears. The Bears peppered Ice Dogs goalie Jake Burgess with 13 shots in the period while Kamil Jarina saved all 5 shots aimed at him.
Period 2 was full of action and if the scoreboard was working, it may have melted. There were 5 goals to the Bears during the period and none to the Ice Dogs. Captain Michael Schlamp scored a short handed unassisted goal (3-0), had an assist on Landa's second goal (4-0) and then got ejected after a fight with former Bear Alec Stephenson straight after Landa's second goal. North American hockey fans might say that the skipper got a Gordie Howe hat trick (a goal, an assist & a fight in the same game).
Schlamp's ejection did not stop the Bears from attacking the Ice Dogs net. Defenceman Steven Adams scored his first goal of the year (5-0), soon followed by powerplay goals to Landa (6-0) and Spencer Austin (7-0). The Bears' 6th goal would be Landa's hat trick goal. The senior players on the team led from the front while younger players were receiving more ice time.
The penalty box attendants were also kept busy during the second period. As the Bears scoring increased, the frustration of the Ice Dogs increased as they attempted to amp up the physical stuff. In total, there were 4 separate penalties to the Bears but 7 penalties to the Ice Dogs. With only 10 skaters starting the game for the Ice Dogs, being short handed for extended periods was not a good thing to happen. Ice Dog Alec Stephenson had a 10 minute misconduct after the earlier coming together with Schlamp while fellow Ice Dog David Hamati was later ejected for a one sided fight towards the end of the period.
With the score favouring the Bears 7-0 at the end of the second period and an expected hard match against the Newcastle North Stars the following day, the Bears coaching staff made the decision to rest goaltender Kamil Jarina. With over 1000 minutes played - the most in the league by a goalie this season - Jarina was able to stay on the bench and young goaltender James Downie was given some ice time for the third period. Downie had served as backup on several occasions for the Bears but this would be his first time on the ice during play.
Downie did not have to worry for the first minute of the third period. In almost a replay of the start of the game, the Bears nailed 2 goals in the first minute of the period. Cameron Todd scored after 34 seconds while Tomas Landa celebrated his 4th and final goal of the game 20 seconds after Todd's goal. Depending on who you talk to, Landa could celebrate either a Pants Trick or a Texas Hat Trick.
A few minutes later, another goal was scored. To the relief of the Ice Dogs' faithful fans, their team finally scored with 12.13 left in the game. With the game well in the Bears' hands, the main points of interest for Bears fans was to see if their team could record their 10th goal. Meanwhile, the team should have been thinking about not getting drawn into penalties. Neither plan really worked as the game wound down with no further goals added by either team.
A 9-1 scoreline could have been a lot worse except for the efforts of Ice Dogs goal tender Jake Burgess. With a heavy workload all season, a high Goals Against Average (8.72 goals per game on average) and a low save percentage 0.807), Burgess did make some good saves against a Bears team who fired 45 shots at him. His efforts and missed chances for the Bears led to keeping the Bears under 10 goals. Notably, the Bears only converted 2 out of 12 powerplay chances.
During the second intermission, captain Schlamp came out of the dressing room and chatted with Bears fans who had made the cross-town journey to Liverpool. Frustration as a result of the centre ice disturbance led to the action that led to the skipper's ejection rather than the actual disturbance itself. Even with the score of 4-0 at the time of the ejection, the Bears were well in control even if they were Schlampless for 31 minutes. There's a fine line between pleasure and pain with dealing with the on-ice officials especially for the captain of the team.
After the game, Bears forward Cameron Todd was pleased to walk away with the 3 points for the win. “It started off a bit scrappy, but the boys got (the) win and we were happy with how we got it done,” Todd said. “It’s always got that rivalry feel. It’s back and forth; we had the upper hand then they did but we were able to contain them.”
The following day, the Bears would head to Newcastle to face the 2015 AIHL Minor Premiers, the Newcastle North Stars before their final regular season games the following weekend against the Melbourne Mustangs and Melbourne Ice in Melbourne. The Ice Dogs would end their season with games against CBR Brave and the North Stars.
Story by Eric Brook
Additional reporting by Alex Lawson
Photo by Injected Ideas Photography
MUSTANGS
BRAVE
ICE
THUNDER
RHINOS
NORTHSTARS
ADRENALINE
LIGHTNING
