With the AIHL Finals now out of reach for the Sydney Bears, the team headed to Melbourne for their final roadtrip of the season. On Saturday August 22, the Bears would face the Melbourne Mustangs, also out of the Finals race.With injuries and other end-of-season committments reducing the traveling roster, the Bears would start the weekend without their best squad. Every team in the league could identify with this feeling in some way on the final weekend of the regular season. Despite this, the Bears were keen to secure points to get as close to the final 4 as they can. The Mustangs had a slow start to their season in a simliar way to the Bears. The orange & black Melbourne team had staged a late season comeback after spending a lot of their season in 7th position. Somehow, the Mustangs would work their way to 5th while the Bears would slide to 7th. Bears/Mustangs games this season have been high scoring affairs played hard but fairly and this game would be no exception.The Icehouse is a great place to play or watch hockey as anyone who has been there would be able to tell you. It did not take long for the local crowd to find something to cheer about after the Mustangs scored after not quite 3 minutes of play. It soon became clear that the Mustangs were here to play speedy, flash hockey. The Bears spent long periods defending with Kamil Jarina saving 23 out of the Mustangs shots fired at him in the first period. Meanwhile, rookie Mustangs goaltender Jack Hayes had very little to do compared to Jarina.The second period saw the Mustangs fire off their goal horn again early in the period to lead 2-0. In a mirror image of the first period, the Mustangs dominated. This period, however, the Bears were able to get more shots on goal than they had in the first. Jarina had a lot of work to do in net. The posts also assisted to help to keep the Mustangs at bay. At the other end of the ice, Hayes was doing a good job at keeping the Bears off the scoreboard. The Mustangs were galloping over the Bears but the scoreboard did not reflect this.The final period started with a concerning incident for Bears forward Cameron Todd. Competing for the puck with Mustang Sean Jones, there was a heavy collision which lead to Todd staying down until he was assisted off the ice. He would take no further part in the game nor would he play the following day against the Melbourne Ice. As a result of the incident, Jones was assessed with a 5 minute major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct. Seeing a star player being assisted off the ice could have rattled the Bears but it did not. A minute and a bit later, Michael Schlamp got the Bears on the board with help from imports Tomas Landa and Joe Harcharik. Finally, the Bears were on the scoreboard and only down by a goal. Often this season across the league, a goal produces a goal soon after. Within a minute, the Mustangs had scored to keep the margin of 2 goals in their favour. There's something about Melbourne which seems to Bears goalies under notice of others across the league. With 59 shots on goal before being pulled to provide an extra attacker, Jarina was certainly earning his money - oh wait...As the clock was winding down, the Mustangs had control of the game. With 7 seconds of the Mustsng season left, a goal to the home team gave their fans a happy ending and a 4-1 scoreline to end their year. It was a similar result the last time the two teams met in Melbourne.After the game, there was a realistic feeling of competing hard but not having the horses to defeat the Mustangs. “We have some guys who have to change positions, play positions they are not comfortable with,” Sydney Bears head coach Vlad Rubes explained as his team prepares for their final game of the season against the Melbourne Ice five men down. “We just tried to play good hockey with the players we had tonight,” Rubes said. With the Mustangs season completed, the Bears had one game remaining the following day against the Melbourne Ice. With Cameron Todd needing a miracle on ice and Paul Bond's hand needing ice after the game - the defenceman took a hard shot to the hand early in the game - a hard assignment against the Ice had just got that little bit harder.Story by Eric BrookAdditional reporting by Bianca GibsonPhoto by Richard Costello
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RHINOS
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LIGHTNING
