Bears 2 @ North Stars 8

The Sydney Bears' final NSW game of the season against the Newcastle North Stars would be the final game of the penultimate weekend of the 2015 AIHL regular season. While the Bears appreciated the 3 points they earned against the Sydney Ice Dogs, they knew the trip to Newcastle would be a difficult one.

 

 

Cameron Todd. Paddy Ward. Richard Tesarik. Ales Padelek. 4 Big Bears names. All missing.

 

 

At the end of the game, both coaches would comment about the short Bears bench, If the task against the confirmed Minor Premiers was not hard enough on their home ice, the short bench would make it harder still.

 

 

It took 5 minutes of pressure for the home team to open their account with a second goal 3 minutes later seeing the North Stars head to the dressing room leading 2-0 after the first period. Kamil Jarina was in the sights of the potent North Stars attack with 10 recorded shots on goal but lots of pressure in and around the net.

 

 

More concerning for the Bears than the 2-0 scoreline occured with just under 5 minutes to go in the 1st period. Young gun Lachlan McKenzie hit the boards rather hard in front of the Bears bench. Taking some time to get his breath back, he was assisted to the Bears dressing room for an assessment. Reporting some soreness after the game, he returned to the bench in the second period and resumed play later in the second period.

 

 

In the third minute of the second period, Tomas Landa continued his excellent weekend. He combined with captain Michael Schlamp and the Czech import had his 5th goal of the weekend. More importantly, Landa's goal saw the Bears open their scoring for the afternoon. A few minutes later, Newcastle would take advantage of a Landa-created powerplay after a delay of game penalty.

 

 

Newcastle would attack with wave after wave. The minor premiers would score against with 26 seconds to go in the period to take a 4-1 lead into the last 20 minutes of the game. The game was fast flowing with few penalties called throughout the game. In fact, the Bears would not receive a single powerplay in the match. Matching minors late in the first period would be the only time the home team would visit the penalty box.

 

 

The Bears needed to score first if they were any hope of staying in touch with Newcastle. 2 goals in 3 minutes in the first half of the final period by the North Stars did not help the Bears stay in touch with their opponents. By this stage, Bears fatigue was starting to show while the North Stars had legs and knew how to use them. 

 

 

With the score now 5-2 to the home team, North Stars coach Andrew Petrie took the chance to give goaltender Dayne Davis a rest and put Joshua Broekman in net. Bears Man Of The Weekend Tomas Landa gave the travelling Bears fans something to cheer about with a goal 7.25 into the period. It was his second goal of the game and 6th goal of the weekend. Broekman had played against the Bears earlier in the season and allowed no further Bears goals for the game.

 

 

At the other end of the ice, Kamil Jarina was racking up the frequent goalie minutes. The North Stars got 2 powerplay goals as Bears defenceman Spencer Austin sat for hooking and holding penalties. In the end, Jarina would face 50 shots during the game.

 

 

The game wound down and with it went any chance of a Bears finals place. An 8-2 loss to the Minor Premiers 2 weekends before the finals would not look good for the Bears. With the players that were missing, the remaining players did what they could however Newcastle were too fast and too strong for the Bears on this occasion.

 

 

The Bears coaching staff were well aware of the challenges that faced their team as Bears Head Coach Vlad Rubes would explain post-match. “We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Rubes said. “We didn’t have a full line up and they played well. They had lots of good plays. We have a big weekend ahead of us in Melbourne, we have two training sessions left ahead of us, before our last weekend.”

 

 

"The scoreboard says 8-2 but I don't think we played that badly.Last night we played a team that was in a similar situation (Ice Dogs had a short bench the previous night in the Bears 9-1 win) so even if you win (against the Ice Dogs), you're not really happy happy to win 9-1", explained Rubes. 

 

 

The Bears have one weekend remaining in their season with a roadtrip to Melbourne on 22/23 August with games against the Melbourne Mustangs (Saturday) and Melbourne Ice (Sunday). Unfortunately for the Bears, the loss confirmed that they would not be in the finals series the following weekend.

 

 

 

Story by Eric Brook

Additional reporting by Courtney Laura

Photo by Wulos