Brisbane Lightning News: June 10, Week 9

The Melbourne Ice stole the headlines from the Brisbane Lightning on Lightning home ice at IceWorld Boondall, with the visitors coming away on the top side of a massive 11-9 win.

The first period was the relatively low scoring affair but was riddled with penalties – Melbourne with 14 minutes in the sin bin and the Brisbane Lightning with 11 minutes. On the ice, the first period was closely fought with the Melbourne Ice up 3-2 at the finish. Goals to Lightning leading scorer Harley Anderson with his 14th tally of the season and fellow centre Sacha Rapchuk with his 5th helped the Lightning stay within one goal of the Ice as the teams entered the first intermission. The score was close on the board; however – in a situation that would foreshadow the second period - the Lightning struggled for most of the period to contain the fast and aggressive Ice forward pack led by German import Patrick Klopper.

The import-heavy forward lines of the Melbourne Ice came into their own in the second period. Four unanswered goals from the Melbourne team took the visitors out to a 7-2 lead. The Ice thought that they were home and away to the change room, but Brisbane got one tally back with only 20 seconds left in the period when Eric Speedie put away a shorthanded goal to light a bit of a fire under the Brisbane team as they went into the room with a small positive from a difficult period. The second period saw a few less infractions called on both teams with four penalties to the Ice and only one to the Lightning. Despite the man advantage in their favour for a measure of the middle frame, the Lightning came out on the negative side of the special teams play with Melbourne notching one powerplay and two shorthanded goals.

Young Lightning defender Mikko Rippon highlighted some of the Brisbane struggles in the second period when asked about the play. “We kept our composure for most of the period and it was good to stay out the box, but our powerplay struggled against the high pressure Ice penalty kill. I’m sure the coaches will talk to us about the powerplay structure when we head into the room.”

Speedie’s shorthanded goal to finish the period must have been the spark Brisbane needed to light their fire. Four unanswered goals to open the period – tallies from Aiden Catakovic, Max Roth, Neil Pretorius and Alex Higgins – dragged the Lightning back to a tie game with the Ice in the middle of the period. The Lightning team and fans were pumped and the atmosphere within the Boondall rink was electric. Every Lightning player and fan thought this was going to be the comeback win of the year in the AIHL! The Melbourne Ice, however, didn’t buy into the hype. The last half of the third period was a wide open affair with the Ice and Lightning going toe to toe on the ice and back and forth on the scorecard. In the end, despite Harley Anderson tallying his 15th of the season and import forward Kasey Kuklczycki notching his 2nd, the Lightning were not able to contain the triple K imports – Klopper, Klein and Kraemer – as they led the Ice to a 11-9 final score.

“It was a tough loss on home ice against a team we really felt that we could take points off,” said Lightning Forward Will Clifford. “We definitely wish we could have had a better result for the fans.”

In the end the Lightning suffered with the speed of the Melbourne Ice forwards and the pressure of the Ice forecheck – especially on the powerplay. Despite the fact that the home team put away 9 goals the Melbourne Ice turned the tide and won the special teams battle with 3 powerplay goals and 4 shorthanded goals. The AIHL has been a high scoring league so far this year, but the faster, more disciplined and more structured team will still generally come away with the points – and this weekend it was the Melbourne Ice.

The Brisbane Lightning will regroup and get ready for a big weekend in Adelaide against the Adrenaline. This will be an important double header against a team who hopes to take over the third and final playoff spot from the Lightning in the Rurak Conference, while the Lightning will be attempting to cement their status as a team to fear throughout the AIHL.

Words by- Ivan Rapchuk
Image by- Jasin Boland