Photo: Jake Riley playing in his home Caribou CBR Brave debut in the special Menslink charity jersey - Paul Furness
Caribou CBR Brave are on the way to retaining the Beyond Blue Cup after sweeping the weekend at the Brave Cave over the visiting Adelaide Adrenaline, defeating the South Australians 8-3 and 8-1.
The Brave welcomed the Adrenaline to Canberra for the first time since 2019 for a double header weekend of AIHL action. The crisp sunny winter Canberra days we enjoyed for much of last week gave way to dark, windy and wet times, which made for a rough fan experience over the weekend. But the bleak conditions did not deter the supporters, with large crowds converging on Phillip both evenings, including a couple of vocal travelling Adelaide superfans.
The two teams began a new era of friendly contest for the Beyond Blue Cup, with a format change that sees the Cup contested over all four games of the regular season series between the Brave and Adrenaline in Canberra and Adelaide.
On Saturday, the Brave seemed a little flat, with their normal high intensity play missing. Adelaide was comfortable in making the game scrapy and not allowing the more fancied home team to build up fluid attacking passing moves. It was a well-executed tactic of Adelaide to try and quash the Brave rhythm and keep the scoring down to make it a close game. Neither team were allowing the other many clear-cut chances. But power plays broke the game open with the Brave able to take advantage both with a man down and a man up to give themselves a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. The second period saw the Brave and Adelaide trading goals, with former captain, Matt Harvey, scoring a hat trick, to bring his season total into double figures. The Brave went into the final period with a three-goal lead and despite both teams putting on more goals, it remained close for the majority of the third. It was not until the final five minutes that things began to open up, and the Brave took full advantage, through their superior fitness, to extend their lead and finish the game off with a larger win than the true story of the game told.
Photo: Austin Albrecht playing on Sunday when we scored five goals and three assists for a total of eight points - Paul Furness
On Sunday, the intensity of the game was higher than the day before. This suited Canberra nicely, as the team’s natural style is quick passing and penetrating dribbles from the defensive blue line. It did not take long for the Brave to open up a three-goal lead, and unlike the night before, there was no response from the Adrenaline to counter the Brave on the scoreboard. Canberra scored with regularity in the game, but it was by no means the fault of the Adelaide goaltender, Matúš Trnka, who showed great ability and bravery at times to make some huge saves. Tempers flared a little in the third period with Adelaide becoming increasingly frustrated but luckily the referees kept everyone in check, and nothing escalated out of control. The star of the night for the Brave was Austin Albrecht, who scored an eye-popping five times and contributed another three assists for an amazing eight-point game. Alex Tétreault also deserves special mention for being 58 seconds away from his first career shutout. It’s only a matter of time now till he secures that elusive prize that goaltenders crave.
Overall, the weekend was played in good spirits with minimum penalties. There was only one unfortunate incident of a check gone wrong that ended with Foll copping a hit to the head from Giorgi. It was nice seeing Giorgi realising the mistake straight away and looking to check that Foll was okay. Giorgi did receive a five-minute major and match penalty for the hit and an automatic two game suspension.
With the pair of wins, the Brave remain on top of the Rurak Conference and AIHL standings. Adelaide remains fourth in the Rurak Conference. The Canberrans take a lead in retaining the Beyond Blue Cup for 2023. Austin Albrecht moves up to second in the AIHL points scoring leaders charts and the Brave now look forward to two more weekends in a row of home games, albeit single game weekends, against Perth and the Central Coast.
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For all media enquiries, please contact CBR Brave Media: media@cbrbrave.com.au.
Game Summary:
Final Scores:
Saturday - Caribou CBR Brave 8 - 3 Adelaide Adrenaline
Sunday - Caribou CBR Brave 8 - 1 Adelaide Adrenaline
Goal Scorers:
Saturday
Brave: Matt Harvey (x3), Austin Albrecht (x2), Bayley Kubara, Cameron Marks, Félix Plouffe
Adrenaline: Brett Radford (x2), Coy Prevost
Sunday
Brave: Austin Albrecht (x5), Casey Kubara (x2), Félix Plouffe
Adrenaline: Connor Vermeulen
Next Caribou CBR Brave games:
Saturday 15 July 2023: versus Perth Thunder – Phillip Ice Skating Centre, Canberra Puck Drop: 5:15pm