Despite mounting a comeback in the final period, the Bears’ lack of depth was evident without their two star imports, Dutchman Tony Demelinne and Canadian Kurtis Dulle.

Adelaide opened the scoring early through forward Cass Delsar, who found enough space inside a packed Bears goalmouth to finish, and doubled their lead soon after, thanks to a brilliant individual effort from forward Josef Rezek.

With a short bench on the road Sydney players would have to log a lot of minutes against a speedy Melbourne squad, but the Bears got off to a good start when defence-man Steve Adams buried a power play goal, to give his team a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period.

The Bears then withstood a barrage of Melbourne power plays but eventually gave up the equalising goal, and soon after the home team added another to take the lead.

The name of the game for The Bears this year was leadership, with a young and inexperienced team line up, strength and knowledge were needed to guide the up and coming Bears to take on the AIHL opposition.

Enter Tony Demelinne, who after some well-earned success in Europe, joined The Bears in the fourth game against The Ice, his presence was immediately felt remarkably scoring four goals. Losing key import Jordan Hale to a sudden season ending injury, it was up to Tony and fellow import Kurtis Dulle to lead the way, while Canadian import Sheldon Baerg held the net.

In a very bruising encounter, both teams came out firing on all cylinders, creating numerous goal-scoring opportunities.

But it was the visitors who took the lead midway through the first period, with Gold Coast assistant captain Matt Amado picking up the puck from just inside the blue line and firing a slapshot along the ice to open the scoring.

The Bears replied after the break through assistant captain and coach Vlad Rubes, who netted a goal in the top corner from right in front, levelling the scores.

After going down to the Adrenaline on Saturday night 6-3 in Adelaide, the Bears wanted to get off to a good start against the defending AIHL champions.