Di Salvo blocking CBR offence. Photo: David Tate.

The Perth Thunder have turned around a forgettable outing on Saturday night to split the points on offer, after downing the CBR Brave in a tenacious 4-3 win at the Brave Cave on Sunday night.

The first period opened in a much more subdued fashion than the previous night’s effort, but it was the Brave who capitalised on their chances to open the scoring as the Thunder looked to kill a short 5 on 3 penalty. The Brave struck through Hayden Dawes who continues his rise up the AIHL scoring leaderboard just as time expired on the first penalty. The timing saw the goal count as a powerplay goal on the second penalty and the Thunder returned to full strength.

The Thunder continued to pressure the brave defence and were rewarded late in the first period through Jonothan Bremner who drew the scores level at 1-1 after beating Alex Tetreault cleanly.

Dawes struck again early in the second period before a natural hat trick from Thunder star defenceman Landon Oslanski saw the Brave with a 4-2 deficit to overcome late in the second period. A fortuitous deflection on a cross crease pass from Channing Bresciani, saw the Brave peg another goal back off the skate of Joey Hughes and bring the score to 4-3 before the end of the second period.

The Brave threw almost everything at Di Salvo and the Thunder in the third period, but the Thunder defence was more than up to the task as they blocked shots and shut down every shooting lane. In the end, the Thunder were able to withstand the onslaught and finished the game with a strong penalty kill as the Brave fell painfully short in their comeback attempt.

Landon Oslanski with 3 points for the night. Photo: David Tate.

Perth Thunder Head Coach Dave Ruck on splitting the weekend with the Brave, "Yeah, we really needed that [win], that puts us in a tie. I think now for fourth and you know we got Adelaide next weekend. So if we could get some good results next couple of games we would be in a pretty good position going into the all-star break"

CBR Brave Head Coach Rob Starke commended the Thunder and turned his sights to the Melbourne Ice.

"I think you got to give Perth a lot of credit, they had a real good bounce back game. Di Salvo stood on his head and had a tremendous third period and really got them the W". Starke then turned attention to the Ice coming to town next weekend, "It'll be a tremendous atmosphere leading up. The Ice have struggled of late and so they'll  be hungry. We will recharge our batteries over the next four or five days and go get back to work for next Saturday"