The Canberra Brave defeated the Melbourne Ice 5-0 in the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) Grand Final to lift the Goodall Cup for the third time in five seasons.

On Friday night, Canberra Brave had a hard battle against Perth Thunder. The Thunder pressed until the last second, however Brave won 2-1. Their next stop was a meeting against Sydney Bears on Saturday with a 5-2 victory, knocking out the top team of the regular season and of the Hellyer conference.

On Friday afternoon, Melbourne Ice cruised to a 5-0 win against Brisbane Lightning to open the Finals series. On Saturday evening, the Ice skaters continued their charge to the championship game. Ice took a come from behind win to defeat the Rurak conference winners Newcastle Northstars 4-3.

Canberra was making its third straight Grand Final appearance, winning in 2022, and runners-up to the Melbourne Mustangs in 2023. The Melbourne Ice was making its first Grand Final appearance since 2017, when Melbourne defeated Canberra.

Before the business of deciding the 2024 AIHL Champions, a number of awards were presented. Robert Haselhurst (Perth Thunder) was named the Skaters Network Australian Player of the Year. Rylan Toth (Adelaide Adrenaline) was named the Goaltender of the Year. Adelaide Adrenaline player/coach Kaden Elder was awarded the Mick McCormack Most Valuable Player for the regular season.

Formalities complete, the Ice’s goalie choice was obviously going to be Tatsunoshin Ishida. Less obvious was the choice of the minder of the Canberra net. Aleksi Toivonen filled the role against Perth Thunder while Alex Tetreault performed against Sydney Bears and now against the Ice in the most important game of the season.

The first five minutes was action packed at a high intensity without producing many quality chances. Jeff Solow had the best chance for the ice with a solo effort that required scramble from Tetreault.

There was a long time between whistles early with many shots coming from distance. With both teams having played on Friday, fatigue would have to be an issue at some time during the game. Brave had several two on one chances in the first period while aiming at the South Pole end.

The first penalties on the game came about with 9.30 remaining in the first period. With the Ice attacking the Brave net, veterans Matt Harvey and Joey Hughes came together with mutual niggling and mutual roughing penalties.

In previous years, that would have resulted in four players on the ice for both teams. In 2024, that rule was changed and in this situation, coincidental roughing penalties kept the on ice strength to five on five.

A high intensity arm wrestle was an apt description of the first period with lots of opportunities at either end by several players in either white or gold. Each goalie and defensive core were certainly ready for battle to keep out the waves of attack.

A first period without goals or powerplays was certainly following the script of the 2023 Goodall Cup Final where Melbourne Mustangs defeated CBR Brave 1-0 and an evenly slanted ice surface. Ice were leading shots on goal 16-11.

The second period started like the first period ended. Canberra were awarded a powerplay early in the second period, the first of the afternoon. The Brave powerplay unit went to work with Matt Clark delivering the pass to Casey Kubara who shot on net. In front, Jake Ratcliffe came good with the redirect, beating Ishida.

Period two featured special teams for both teams including a brief five on three powerplay in favour of the Brave. But it was Canberra who next hit the scoreboard, tallying shorthanded.

The Brave created another two on one situation with Tyler Kubara screaming down the right hand side of the train tracks. He drew the attention of Ishida and found Matt Harvey in the left circle with a perfectly placed pass for a fairy-tale goal in his last AIHL game.

With the score now 2-0 in favour of the gold team from Canberra, the Ice’s discipline melted with several visits to the penalty box. Casey Kubara made the Ice pay with a shot from the high slot, going high on Ishida on the powerplay.

Moments later, it could have been a replay for goal number four with the same result for the same player. Casey Kubara goes bang bang to quickly make the score 4-0.

17 minutes earlier at the start of the period, the score was 0-0 and no powerplays conceded. Then, with 2.4 seconds remaining, Jake Ratcliffe makes the score 5-0.

Canberra’s penalty killing unit had plenty of ice time early in the third period, quickly having to defend an extended five on three powerplay within the first 90 seconds. A successful penalty kill is exactly what the Brave needed and not what the Ice needed.

With 15 minutes remaining in the period, Ice Head Coach Kerry Goulet’s cause was not helped by his players making frequent visits to the penalty box rather than to the front of Alex Tetreault’s net in the third period.

The main aim for the third period for the Brave was more about keeping Alex Tetreault’s net dry and keeping the ice slanted towards Ishida’s end. Special teams for both teams certainly got value for money in the second and third periods compared to the even strength first period.

No goals were scored in the third period to give the final score of 5-0 to Canberra Brave. Final shots on goal ended up finishing in favour of the Brave 33-29.

Alex Tetreault could celebrate another championship with the second shutout in a row by the championship winning goaltender after Liam Hughes led the Melbourne Mustangs to a 1-0 win against CBR Brave in 2023.

With their third championship in 10 years and other championship and finals games in the other years, the Brave have certainly established themselves as a quality franchise in the long term out of the ashes of the Canberra Knights.

Post game, the AIHL Finals Most Valuable Player award was awarded to Jake Ratcliffe (Canberra Brave).

In a fitting tribute, captain Kai Miettinen and retiring player Matt Harvey raised the Goodall Cup together as the Canberra Brave became the 2024 Goodall Cup champions. After the worst start to the season in Brave history, including only one win in their first eleven games, this win will go down as a special one.

After hoisting the Goodall Cup in the air, Brave captain Kai Miettinen spoke with Hockey Hype Australia. “When I said get ready for some wins, it was hard to picture this one at the moment but we believed in ourselves the whole way. We had a pretty low moment there in the season, we lost nine games in a row and it almost started to feel like finals was out of reach. Not many people believed in us to even get here and to do it the hard way, I mean Perth were unbelievable on Friday, it was such a battle.”

Recognising the team’s path through to the cup final, Miettinen continued. ” Same with the Bears, never an easy game in Melbourne. Unbelievable teams, we had to do it the hard way. Hell, we’re gassed, we’ve got nothing left but we got the job done and I’m just so proud of the boys. I think it’s just such an amazing reflection of the group we have in that locker room. It’s honestly probably the closest team I’ve ever been a part of, I’ve been in the league for 14 years now. It’s just, we’ve got something really special and we believed in each other and we did it for each other.”

Miettinen then reflected on Matt Harvey as the pair raised the Goodall Cup together. “He’s a heart and soul guy, he’s one of my closest buddies, I’ve got so much respect for him, he’s the captain of a senior team at that time in 2018 (the Brave’s first Goodall Cup win), I’ve learned so much from him as a leader as well. I’m trying to push him like crazy but what a way to send him off. He defines what it means to be part of this team, what the B represents, what it means, he sums it up.”

Recognising the contribution of goaltenders Alex Tetreault and Aleksi Toivonen, Miettinen spoke about an advantage in front of the net with two quality tenders to choose from. “It’s a little bit ridiculous isn’t it, that we’re spoilt for choice, it almost doesn’t matter who you put in there, we’ve got so much faith in both of them and the relationship between the two. We like to call them the old Boston combo, Ullmark and Swayman, it’s a pretty special bond those two have and you can only imagine how hard it would be for a goalie too. It’s difficult. When you’re a player, third, fourth liner, you still probably get out there. But there’s only one goalie who can play, so it’s not easy to have that sort of bond.”

Comparisons to the club’s first championship in 2018 are an interesting topic. “It’s just different, from where we came from, we came from last in the league to the top, it’s just incredible. 2018 was obviously special, the first one for the team and for all of us, that’s always been a special place in my heart at least, but I feel like this one might endure a little bit because of how hard we had to work to get here.”

Next, Matt Harvey spoke about his final game in the AIHL and picking up the Goodall Cup with captain Miettinen, and Miettinen deferring to Harvey to skate with the cup first. “He’s just a character guy. One of my best friends and he’s just a legend. I appreciate that guy so much.”

Asked what he thought about his final game, Harvey explained. “I mean, it’s the best way to go out. I had it all planned in terms of what I wanted to happen and it all came to fruition. So, made some big adjustments for the finals. And yeah, I had that memory of this thing last year, so I think that really fuelled us this year, fuelled me.”

Harvey continued his reflection. “It’s just special. This is my last year playing in the AIHL, last year playing any type of hockey at this level. So, yeah, really special for a number of reasons. My dad came down, it’s the first time he’s seen a Brave weekend or a Brave game, so that was really special to me. And just to have my family here for the first time this weekend, so yeah, I’m over the moon.”

As the last line of defence, goaltender Alex Tetreault deserves the final words of the season. “It’s the best, it’s hard to put into words, but this team has faced so much adversity the whole season, you can’t write it up any better, started right at the bottom and to finish like that, against arguably the best team in the league, it’s the best, it’s unreal.”

Asked about his feelings about the 5-0 shutout, his first of the season, Tetreault paid tribute to the team in front of him. “Yeah, it’s great, it doesn’t feel like it’s mine, honestly, we played so good defensively as a whole team, cherry on top I guess, first [shutout] of the year in the most important game, can’t be too upset with that.”

After a scoreless first and third periods, the second period won the game for the Brave with five unanswered goals. “Yeah, it’s always nice, you know, when it’s tied up 0-0, you always got to be pretty sharp but you can kind of take a little bit of a breath and get a bit relaxed, not relaxed but get into a bit more of a flow. It’s nice, it’s nice to see them (his team mates) score, it’s nice to celebrate as well.”

Asked about his feelings about his latest championship win with his goalie partner Aleksi Toivonen, Tetreault recognised his contribution in Friday’s game. “We’re not in this grand final if he didn’t play the way he did on Friday, that guy’s a mentor and one of my best friends and you can’t, you can’t snub him from the conversation, he’s such a good goaltender and such a good guy and it was a team effort to get here today. Everyone in the lineup, everything behind closed doors, yeah, he got us here so full credit to him.”

On a personal note to finish the 2024 AIHL Finals Series presented by Hungry Jack’s, a short acknowledgement is in order after three days of hockey action at the O’Brien Icehouse. Many fans, teams, volunteers and players have acknowledged the work of Hockey Hype Australia this AIHL season.

Hockey Hype Australia would like to thank our partners TTC Global, represented by Matt Wiggins, and Skaters Network/Bauer, represented by Sean Sonter. Also, Ben Armstrong from the AIHL provided incredible support for us on the ground in our coverage.

Finally, promoting the game would not be possible without the support and assistance of the teams, staff, volunteers and players. Across the country and across the league, the photographers, media and social media from the teams have collaborated to bring coverage of the league and sport to a new level. Thank you, everyone!