Thunder sweep weekend in Brave thriller

The Perth Thunder swept their away series with the CBR Brave after a 7-6 goal-fest at the Phillip Swimming & Ice Skating Centre on Sunday night. The CBR Brave started the game as the more physical of the two sides, desperate to split the weekend after a big loss on Saturday, but a Perth goal on the counter-attack saw the Thunder gain the early ascendency. The Thunder, after absorbing some the Brave offence, struck twice in 23 seconds through Michael Dorr and Kieran Webster in the later stages of the first period. The goals and the 3-0 lead led to a change as the Brave pulled young goalkeeper Aleksi Toivonen in favour of Australian Under 18’s and 20’s goalie Alex Tetrault who saved 18 of the 22 shots he faced in his second appearance for 2016. CBR Brave coach Josh Unice was pleased with the determination shown by the Brave in the game. “It says a lot about our team, that we can get back from three goals down,” Unice said. “We battled back, and that was nice to see. We learned a lot about the team tonight. This weekend was definitely full of up and downs.” Perth Thunder coach David Kenway praised his team’s ability to grind out the tough win. “We just had to dig in and play the game out,” Kenway said. “Do the little things, keep going, keep digging and keep grinding and hopefully we can just come through.” The three-goal first period saw the Thunder on top of the Brave at the first intermission, and a quick goal from Ben Breault to open the second looked likely to break the Brave spirit. The Brave were not about to let this game get out of hand and two power play goals in as many minutes through Casey Kubara and Neal Prokop saw the Brave mounting a comeback charge. The momentum of the Brave was somewhat stifled when Breault restored the Thunder’s three-goal lead at 5-2, capitalising on a long stretch pass from Jessyko Bernard against the flow of play. With only eight seconds left in the second period, Mathieu Guertin made it a two-goal game at the final break, ensuring a grandstand finish to the game. The final term was littered with both goals and penalties, with four of the five goals scored in the third period coming on the power play as the teams traded goals. Prokop cut the deficit to one-goal early in the final period, before Thunder defenceman Robert Haselhurst restored the two-goal lead midway through the stanza. With just over a minute remaining, goals to Prokop, Breault’s reply and Geordie Wudrick provided some late entertainment but the Brave fell a goal short. Coach Kenway praised the massive effort from import goalie Thomas Heemskerk for keeping the Thunder on top, despite the efforts of the Brave. “It could’ve been a lot worse, he [Heemskerk] was making some big saves,” Kenway said. “A little bit of defensive breakdown in front of him, which doesn’t help, but he kept us in it really, really well, so you can’t fault a goalie that keeps you in a game like that.” Coach Unice pointed to a number of positives to come out of the game for the home team, as well as some room for improvement for their next few games. “Neal [Prokop] sometimes he tries to do a little too much,” Unice said. “He’s obviously a skilled player but he needs to just go back to the roots. He obviously went back, crashed the net, put the puck on net and was rewarded with a hat trick. “I thought Alex Tetrault stepped in very, very admirably, he went in a performed and made some big saves. At the end of the day he’s a young kid and it’s a bright future for him.” The Perth Thunder will head home before their next game on Saturday against the Adelaide Adrenaline at the Adelaide IceArena, while the CBR Brave head to the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium to take on the North Stars next Sunday.