Brisbane Lightning News: July 08, Week 13

The Brisbane Lightning continued their month-long home stand against the AIHL’s top teams by hosting the perennial powerhouse Melbourne Mustangs at IceWorld Boondall on Saturday July 8th, 2023. The Lightning had high hopes going into this game, as the Mustangs had struggled on the road with a recent loss to the Sydney Bears, and the game between the two teams earlier in the year in Melbourne had been a close and hard-fought affair.

 The game started well for the Mustangs thanks to their potent first line, and within the first 7 minutes two goals from Chris Lawrence had put the Melbourne team in front 2-0. Despite the score line, the Lightning were the equal of the Mustangs in relation to zone time and puck possession for the majority of the period. They were rewarded at the 6:53 mark of the first when Kasey Kulczycki took a lead pass from Patrick Popovics, sped down the right wing, and turned the goalie inside out to score a fantastic individual effort goal. The penalty-free first period ended 2-1 for the Melbourne Mustangs, but the Lightning were happy to be very much in the game at that point.

The second period was stop and start with 6 penalties called on the Lightning and 4 on the Mustangs. The majority of the second period was played on either the penalty kill or the powerplay as the special teams units for each side saw the bulk of the ice time and the goalies were put to work in the nets. Nick Novysedlak was given the start by the coaching staff, and he was solid in between the pipes. A couple of early markers went in against him, but he settled down thereafter to hold strong in the goal against the potent Melbourne attack.

On the scoresheet the Mustangs top line – including the imports Timmons and Lawrence and their forward thinking D-man Ty Wishart - pushed the pace and were able to put three goals past the Lightning starter in quick succession. The period ended with the Mustangs up 5-1 on the scoreboard. The import goalie for the Mustangs – Liam Hughes – showed his class and ability by turning aside all of the Lightning shots in the period to keep the period scorecard ledger clear on his side.

The third period was fast and clean for most of the 20 minutes. The Mustangs received the only two penalties of the period that occurred outside the final 2 minutes, when a disagreement between a few players led to send offs for McDowell from the Mustangs and Popovics from the Lightning. The Lightning tried to shake the game up by pulling Novysedlak out from between the pipes and inserting Steve Harris in goal for the third. It did inspire the team to lift a bit, however the only person to pen their name onto the scoresheet in the final frame was Scott Timmons - the Melbourne winger getting his hat trick 3 minutes into the 3rd period.

“It was a disappointing result to end up 6-1 down at the end of the game”, mused centreman Sacha Rapchuk after the match. “We started out so well and followed the plan of the coaches – play fast, avoid getting into penalty trouble, and play tough defence against the Mustang’s top line. But they’re great players who find ways to put the puck in the net. Especially when we ran into penalty trouble in the 2nd period.”

“Not a great result to head into our bye week on,” agreed Rapchuk’s linemate Aaron Wanat. “We didn’t give enough support to Novy (Lighting Goalie Nick Novysedlak) in the second (period) and their top line is too good to not put away those chances with the man advantage.”

Though they didn’t come away with the win, there were some bright spots for the Lightning: the play of defender Alexis Girard was again very good; the powerplay moved the puck around under control when given the opportunity to be on the ice – though they didn’t put any pucks past the solid Hughes in the Melbourne net; and the line of Sacha Rapchuk centring Aaron Wanat and Lachlan Clifford was a thorn in the side of Melbourne all evening.

The Brisbane Lightning look to carry those positives from the game forward and use them to gain some points in a doubleheader weekend against the always tough Newcastle Northstars July 23rd and 24th at home! Join us there!

Words by Ivan Rapchuk 
Image by Slippery Pixel Photography