The Canberra Brave defeated the Sydney Bears 5-2 to earn a place in the Hungry Jack’s Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) Grand Final. Canberra will face either the Melbourne Ice or Newcastle Northstars at 2 pm AEST on Sunday.

The first semi-final saw the Sydney Bears play the Canberra Brave. Sydney finished the regular season as the winners of the Hellyer Conference and the H Newman Reid trophy winners for the first placed team in the AIHL regular season.

The Bears were presented with both trophies prior to the start of the game. Bears captain Ryan Annesley was also presented the AIHL Award for the Defenceman Of The Year.

As has been the case all season with the Wilson Cup and Canada Day Classic trophies (against the Ice Dogs and Ice respectively), Annesley was very careful not to touch any of the three trophies he was presented with as Bears captain.

Meanwhile, Canberra was coming off a tight game against the late charging Perth Thunder in Friday’s second game winning 2-1. The winner of this game would be one half of the Goodall Cup Final on Sunday afternoon.

Aleksi Toivonen had the start against the Thunder yesterday with Alex Tetreault taking the start against the Bears. At the other end of the ice, Anthony Kimlin was given the start over James Downie.

The first five minutes saw both goalies rarely challenged. Bears welcomed Chris Eaden and Chris Kushneriuk back into the lineup after being missing for several weeks.

Leading goal scorer Adam Kadlec was not in the team for this game. Meanwhile, the Brave had an unchanged lineup from the previous game against the Thunder with seemingly very little fuel taken out of the tank.

The first and best chance for the Brave came with 9.23 remaining in the first period. Matt Clark selected powerdrive from the blueline during the Brave’s second powerplay in quick succession.

It beat Kimlin, however, the puck rang off the crossbar and went out of play. Three minutes later, Tetreault had to scramble as Tomas Landa and Brody Lindal combined as they have so many times this season.

Shot quality and intensity at both ends increased as the period went on. Teams went to the first intermission with no goals to show for it. Shots on goal favoured the Brave 13-8 in a fairly even period.

The second period commenced in the same style as the first period ended. Justin Maylan broke the deadlock early in the second period for Canberra with 15.39 remaining in the period.

Maylan picked off a Timothy Newmark pass in the offensive zone, leaving Kimlin with little reaction time as he roofed the puck. Canberra extended the lead after Bears confusion in the neutral zone with just under eight minutes to go in the second period.

Matt Harvey took advantage of the error and found Jake Ratcliffe and Austin Cangelosi. Cangelosi beat a sprawling Kimlin who could only stretch so far.

2-0 Brave quickly became 3-0 thanks to Tyler Kubara 11 seconds later, assisted by brother Bayley. 23 seconds earlier, the score was a much more manageable 1-0 against the Bears.

After their worst minute of play all season during their best season in recent memory, how would the Bears respond? They needed to respond to the Brave but spent a lot of time after the third goal in their defensive zone in front of their own net.

Lucas Herrmann had a great chance in the shadow of the second intermission for the Bears however the puck went high and was flung away by Cangelosi. Despite the 3-0 scoreline against them, Bears took a narrow lead on the shot count (24-22).

While the best team was up for debate in the first period, there was no doubt that the second period belonged to Canberra.

The third period started in less than ideal fashion for the Bears conceding an early power play. Shorthanded, Carson Miller was attacking the net for the Bears and was brought down by Tommy Steven.

After some confusion and spirited debate at centre ice and in the packed Icehouse, a minor penalty for hooking was awarded against Steven rather than a penalty shot which was the initial signal.

With 17 minutes exactly remaining on the clock and 57 seconds after the penalty against Steven, Cangelosi scored his second goal for the Brave.

Cangelosi was accompanied in a two on one situation by Jake Ratcliffe in a classic tic-tac-toe move to extend the lead to 4-0 Brave. The mountain just got that little bit harder for the Bears to climb.

With just over 10 minutes potentially remaining in the Bears season, Herrman finally opened the scoring the Bears. Contained by the Brave, Herrmann and Miller were certainly not giving up on their adopted team.

Several players who had been so good for the Bears this season were not allowed to do whatever they wanted by the Brave which limited their effectiveness. The defence for the Brave was standing strong with their house well protected by Tetreault.

With 6.09 remaining in the third period, there was a video review on a play in front of the Brave net. In a last second effort by Brave defenceman Bayley Kubara, there was debate about if Kubara had closed his hand and grabbed the puck.

There was also debate about if the puck crossed the goal line. After a video review – which is only available during the AIHL Finals Series – the officials determined that the puck had indeed crossed the goal line.

Tomas Landa was awarded the powerplay goal to give the Bears some hope. This sparked up the Bears attack who ended up outshooting the Brave 44-31.

But with the Bears looking to attack with a just over a minute to go and Kimlin still in net, Matt Clark put the exclamation point on the Brave’s ticket to the Goodall Cup Final with a fine shot from the left hand faceoff circle to beat Kimlin and seal the 5-2 win in a great all round performance.

Not surprisingly, Bears captain Ryan Annesley was disappointed in the way that things ended up in the end. He told Hockey Hype Australia post game, “It’s just dejected. It’s never… hard to put into words the feeling when you work so hard all season and then it comes to an end like that. Not a good feeling. It’s early to be thinking about that (next season) right now. My mindset’s not even there yet. Obviously we had a really good regular season but you build the team and you do that to win in this weekend. To not have gotten it done it’s back to the drawing board.”

Annesley expressed pride in the team’s efforts across the season despite the result. “They all worked hard and it’s a great group. If there is a silver lining or a positive it’s that we do have a good core that’s coming back. It’s going to hurt for a while.”

A much brighter picture was being painted in the opposite corner. Tyler Kubara shared how the team were feeling about two games in two days with one more game to follow on Sunday. “It’s tough playing back-to-back games, but I think it’s something we’ve been getting ready for all year. Little things off the ice get us ready for back-to-back games like this. I think the boys are in a good spot, really confident, feeling good.”

Speaking about import defenceman Matt Clark who has scored two goals in the Finals series, Kubara was full of praise. “Yeah, Clarke came in a little bit late, but really stacked that D line for us. Him and Bayley working really well together, but he does well absorbing pressure, getting those pucks back in the D zone. He makes really nice plays, smart plays, good passes. He’s good for us down the zone, and as you can see the last couple of games, he follows up the play and he can score as well. He’s a good kid for us.”

Clark’s summary of his feelings about his weekend was a lot simpler than Kubara’s. “I’m a little tired, but tired is painful, so one more game and I’m not worried about how I feel.” Asked about his preparation, Clark said “Well, you know, it’s basic recovery and stuff we’ve been doing all year. Nothing changes. We’ll just keep rolling. We’ll probably come back (later) and see the game (semi-final 2), see who we could be playing (in the Goodall Cup Final). It’s a big game tomorrow and we’ll be prepared.”

With the Hellyer Conference & H Newman Reid trophy winners now out of the picture, Canberra sit in the box seat and wait for the winner of semi-final two between the Newcastle Northstars and Melbourne Ice on Saturday night.