Tale of the Tape - Brave @ Thunder

A big clash this weekend awaits over in Perth, with the second-placed Thunder hosting the fast-rising Brave in a game with important Finals implications. Having been one of the teams to beat from the start of the season, Perth have had some player availability challenges recently, and the Brave have started to get on a roll after an indifferent start. The Tale of the Tape looks at how these two teams stack up.

Overall in 2025

So far in 2025

Perth have been one of the form teams in the AIHL all year, and are clearly eyeing off one of the top two spots and a day off on the Friday of Finals weekend. A different approach to previous years with a local in net,. Led by former Brave goaltender Aleksi Toivonen helps the Thunder expand their depth, and provide a consistent scoring threat across multiple lines.

Perth have built their team this year from the back end forward – and it shows. They concede less shots per game than all except two teams, and in Aleksi Toivonen have a high-quality local goaltender backstopping them.

For the Brave, this season has looked a lot like 2024 – a slow start giving way to strong recent form as their depth has returned. This has increased the offensive threat posed, averaging over 39 shots on goal per game.

The teams have met twice in 2025 already, way back in early April, before Easter, when the Thunder took both games over the weekend. As is the case with lots of early-season games in the AIHL, there have been so many lineup changes that learning much from them is very difficult, and akin to comparing a Wizard Cup win with a premiership. For the Thunder, Benjamin Berard has departed, and Zane Jones hasn’t been in the lineup for a while – but they are likely to have Robert Lachowicz, Kolby Johnson, Alex Roach, Jake Hamilton and Max Lyashenko to replace them, which definitely won’t hurt. On the Brave side of the ledger, Brandon McNally comes out and Matt Buskas hasn’t been in the lineup lately, but the ins include Dominic Canic, Jens Viikila, Nils Carnback, Matt Clark, Jake Ratcliffe, Bray Crowder, Tom Harrow and Hwanee Kang.

Alex Tétreault (Brave) and Aleksi Toivonen (Thunder). Photo by: Verity Griffin

Longer history

Over 2023 and 2024, Perth have dominated the head-to-head in the regular season, winning four of the five games (one in a shootout). Throughout these, the Thunder have outscored the Brave 4.8 goals per game to 3.4 goals – despite being outshot by just over four shots per game, as their star import goaltenders earned their keep.

Cold comfort for the Brave will be that the last time they beat the Thunder in the regular season was over two years ago – the 24^th of June 2023, where Aleksi Toivonen led them to the win.

Across these two seasons, special teams have been remarkably even – Perth’s powerplay was successful 22.7% of the time, while Canberra’s ran at 22.2%.

When we look at the scorers, while dominated by imports largely no longer in the lineup, have a couple of familiar names for the Thunder – with Kieran Webster scoring 6 points, and Ben Breault picking up 5. For the Brave, none of their top 5 scorers are still around, with the highest-scorer within the current lineup being Bayley Kubara (4 points), with Jacob Carey just behind with 3 points.

Looking at the goalies, who formed a Cup-winning tandem in Canberra last year, tells an interesting story. For Aleksi Toivonen, prior to 2025 his save percentage against the Brave* was the second-lowest against any opponent (0.860), but after the two games in Canberra this year, his save percentage jumps to 0.892 – on a small sample. For Alex Tetreault, Perth haven’t been his favourite opponent, posting an overall save percentage of 0.829 against them – which, if nothing else is a nice tribute to his playing number. He’ll be looking to ride his recent strong form – his save percentage in his last 5 games is 0.941 – into an improved outing.

*Regular season only

Period by period

The big difference between the teams on a period-by-period basis is in the first period. Perth jump out of the blocks, scoring almost ¾ of a goal more than their opponents on average, while the Brave concede half a goal start. This will be something to watch over the weekend.