Brave steamroll Adrenaline

The Adelaide Adrenaline, proudly presented by Hards Transport, were no match for an in-form Canberra Brave as their foes romped to an 10-5 victory.

It seemed as though Adelaide had no answers against a Canberra side led by a stunning Stephen Blunden performance with the goals flowing for the Brave throughout the game.

For Adelaide, Head Coach Sami Mantere had some mixed emotions from the result.

“You score five goals you should at least be competing not losing by five goals,” he said.

“We’ve got the talent to score goals but we’ve got to play better defence.”

On their way to a 4-1 first period lead, Blunden scored three goals for Canberra through a pair of rebound collections and a rifling shot through defence. It was a stunning return for one of the AIHL's best imports who had missed the last 2 months with injury.

His first two goals came against Matt Murphy who was unable to control the puck on some hard rebounds, with Blunden always in the right place at the right time for some easy close range goals.

Adelaide wrestled back some momentum through Cam Critchlow when he scored off a quick 1-2 with Casey Babineau, providing fans with an exciting start to the game.

Passing the puck to Babineau in a stirring push forward, Babineau teased the Brave defence with some quick stick work, before returning the puck to Critchlow right in front of goal. He was then able to chip around Alexandre Tetreault.

Leading the Adrenaline in points, it was Critchlow’s 17th goal of 2017.

From there it was one-way traffic unfortunately, despite rookie Jake Riley playing one of his best games, while Mantere had hoped for more aggression from the Adrenaline.

“I was expecting a lot of pressure from Canberra on their offensive plays but I was also expecting us to fight harder,” he said.

“It just didn’t quite go right for us. We were almost there for most of the time but that always means we’re just a little bit behind.”

Goals to imports Blunden and Geordie Wudrick rounded out the first for Canberra.

Adelaide scored the first goal of the second period when Greg Oddy showed his class on a powerplay, providing some composure for the Adrenaline.

Combining with Babineau, Oddy capitalised on some poor positioning from Tetreault and he was easily able to beat the goalie with a shot into the top corner.

Much like the first period, Canberra then scored in a frenzy, with Wehebe Darge scoring on his return to Adelaide. Snatching up a bouncing puck he snuck in Canberra’s fifth from close range with six to play, before Blunden had his fourth thanks to a quick release from a long range pass by Mark Rummukainen.

In the final period, Canberra opened up an eight-goal lead with the likes of Blunden, Wudrick and Dominic Jalbert finding the back of the net.

Adelaide finally kicked into gear in the final minutes when Cole MacMillan scored. Snapping up a loose puck in front of Tetreault, MacMilan showed his skills with a hard hit into the top corner of the net for a 10-3 score.

The Adrenaline continued to hold the momentum as Josef Rezek netted with a smart play around Tetreault, who again left too much of the net open and Rezek easily scored across the face of goal.

While it would not change the result, Darren Corstens scored at the death to reduce the margin to five, firing in the puck under the crossbar.

Ahead of tomorrow, the focus remains on a complete performance by the Adrenaline for Mantere.

“It’s the little things that lead to big scores,” Mantere said.

“We gotta be stronger in defence and start from there to get our chances, that way we can capitalise.”