The Bartercard Gold Coast Blue Tongues faced off against the Sydney Bears in the first of two home games on Saturday night at Bundall Iceland.
The Bears got off to a strong start, playing with communication and teamwork to contain the Blue Tongues in their own offensive zone. Michael Schlamp scored the Bears first goal, assisted by Tony Demelinne and Kurtus Dulle five minutes and 8 seconds into the game - a goal which came off a Blue Tongues player. Nearly a minute later, the Blue Tongues goaltender, Luke Fiveash, took a puck straight to the helmet. He shook it off, and play resumed. Tony Demelinne gave the Bears a 2 goal lead, assisted by Michael Schlamp and Brett Nelson-Bond with 8 minutes and 3 seconds left in the first period.
Tobias Falk got the Blue Tongues onto the scoreboard to narrow the gap to 2-1 only 21 seconds after Sydney's second goal. He was assisted by Matt Amado and Mike McRae. The Bears dominated the play for the rest of the period, to the point of closing off the shooting lanes and killing off the only powerplay in the first period to take the teams to the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.
The Blue Tongues returned to the ice in the second period with renewed fire. Mike McRae was penalised 3 minutes and 45 seconds into the period for cross-checking from behind and given a misconduct penalty. While shorthanded, Matt Amado intercepted the puck and raced up the ice for a breakaway but was denied by Bears goaltender Sheldon Baerg. The Blue Tongues managed to kill off the penalty, however Tony Demelinne extended Sydney's lead to 3-1, assisted by Sheldon Baerg.
Daniel Shaw was penalised for slashing only 8 seconds later. Dave Upton, combining with Tobias Falk and Bob Sannemon, closed the gap to 3-2 on the man advantage with 8 minutes 36 seconds left in the second period. Just over two minutes later, Kurtus Dulle was penalised for roughing, giving the Blue Tongues their third powerplay of the game. Matt Amado needed just 17 seconds of the man advantage to sail the puck past goaltender Sheldon Baerg, unassisted, to level the scores 3-3. The Bears then killed off two more penalties called on them back to back, putting them on the penalty kill for 3 minutes and 59 seconds. The teams went to the second intermission locked at 3-3.
The Blue Tongues were unable to convert their sixth powerplay opportunity that was given to them. This preceded what was perceived to be a goal being waved off, initially called but then declared a no-goal upon further deliberation with the linesmen. It took 39 seconds for Matt Amado to slam the puck into the back of the net in what could not be disputed as a goal, assisted by Mike McRae and Tobias Falk, to give the Blue Tongues their first lead of the game at 4-3. Kurtus Dulle, assisted by Michael Schlamp and Spencer Austin, tied the game up again 4-4 with a play that completely outplayed Fiveash from his crease to open his net wide open for Dulle to bury the puck with 7 minutes and 32 seconds left in the game.
Both teams battled hard for the remaining half of the period, but were unable to win in regulation, sending the game to a shootout. The visitors shot first, with Michael Schlamp scoring on Luke Fiveash. Matt Amado took the first shot for the Blue Tongues, sinking the puck past Sheldon Baerg. The Bears sent Kurtus Dulle onto the ice to shoot on Fiveash next, but Fiveash saved the shot. Mike McRae was the Blue Tongues second shooter, who also scored on Baerg. Daniel Shaw took the third shot for the Bears, and was stoned by Fiveash which gave the Blue Tongues a 5-4 win.
The Blue Tongues and Bears face off again on Sunday at Bundall Iceland at 4pm. Tickets will be available at the door.
