The Sydney Bears had one mission to hopefully complete their season on a high on Sunday August 23 - defeat the Finals bound Melbourne Ice in Melbourne the weekend before Finals. The Ice's spot was already confirmed while the Bears non appearance was also confirmed.
The Ice would have been keen to stay injury & suspension free for the Finals the next weekend. With a very short post-season by world standards, even a minor suspension or injury could be costly for the Ice.
Meanwhile, the Bears were already travelling with a shortened bench. A hand injury to defenceman Paul Bond the previous day meant that #16 would only be seen in warmup & on the bench. Up front, forward Cameron Todd was missing his second Sunday game in a row after a lower body injury sustained in previous Saturday matches against the Sydney Ice Dogs & Melbourne Mustangs. Todd would be restricted to bench duties despite being in pain and restricted mobility.
On the ... um .... ice in front of a near sellout home crowd, the Ice celebrated goals twice in the first 4 minutes. With the crowd possibly expecting more goals, the Bears got to work and kept their opponents off the scoreboard for the remainder of the period. Taking less time than the previous day, the Bears scored a powerplay goal. American gun import Joe Harcharik would add another goal to his already impressive total. Earlier, Harcharik explained that he was enjoying Bears hockey and that the game down under in the AIHL was better than he expected.
The second period started for the Ice exactly as the first period did - 2 goals in 4 minutes. Unlike the first period, the Bears did not answer with a goal of their own. They were, however, not going down without a fight. Somehow, the Bears had managed to outshoot the Ice in the first period despite the Ice dominating the game and the scoreboard.
Down the back, goaltender Kamil Jarina and his increasingly small numbers of defencemen were keeping the Ice out of the net. In previous games, the Bears had shown fight regardleas of the situation. Also, other teams had lifted their foot off the go pedal in the past. Would the Ice - with nothing to play for today - go into energy conservation mode?
In the third period, the Bears could smell victory despite spending most of period 2 and over half of period 3 down 4-1. Two goals in 2 minutes to Adrian Esposito and Joe Harcharik (on the powerplay) would give the Bears and their travelling fans some hope. Suddenly 4-1 had become 4-3.
For the next 4 minutes, the tempo of the game picked up. There was one chance for the Bears to have one last win and one last come from behind miracle. All the Ice had to do was to hang on. Import Ice goaltender Alex Leclerc was holding up to his end of the bargain as was Bears goalie Kamil Jarina. The relatively fresher Leclerc and the 1000+ minute Jarina with 59 shots on goal against the Mustangs and 30 shots on against the Ice should mean that the away goalie was tireder at the end of a long season.
In the end, a Bears timeout and the decision to pull Jarina for the extra attacker would seal the fate of the Bears. As was the case several times this season, the Bears were unable
to take advantage of the extra attacker. The Ice took some time however they eventually got through the defence and into the Jarina-less net. With 51 secons remaining, Ice forward Tommy Powell cemented his hat trick and the Bears game and season over. With a 5-3 final scoreline against them, the Bears left the ice for the final time in 2015.
Bears coach Vlad Rubes was pleased with the fight his team showed despite the loss.
“It was a tough game for us because we were missing six guys,” Rubes said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game but the guys showed a lot of character and played a hard game of hockey.”
“We had a slow start to the season; in the first five games I think we only had one point,” Rubes said. In fact, the early results were worse for the Bears, starting the season 0-5.
“We had a winning streak, won a few games, lost a few games so it just comes down to consistency in our performances. We also lost a lot of first periods, so the start of the game was one of the factors for the season too.
“After the slow start, we started winning and even won some games we weren’t expecting to. To get points against Newcastle, the boys showed lots of character and there were young guys playing. We got 15 extra points to last year so it was big jump in points. Overall, I think it was a good season but being so close to the finals and then missing out at the end is disappointing.”
The Bears would end the season in 7th position, one up
from the previous year. Spending much of the year in either 4th, 5th or 6th, the Bears ended up with 11 regulation time wins, 14 regulation time losses, 1 shootout win & 2 shootout losses. Finishing on 37 points, the Bears ended up 10 points behind 4th place CBR Brave.
With the Bears not in the 2015 Finals, it is time to reflect on the highlights & lowlights of 2015 and then move forward to the 2016 season.
Story by Eric Brook
Additional Reporting by Beth Anderson
Photo by Richard Costello
MUSTANGS
BRAVE
ICE
THUNDER
RHINOS
NORTHSTARS
ADRENALINE
LIGHTNING
