Playing in front of a packed house at the Adrenaline’s final home game of the season, the Bears knew they would be in for a tough battle with both teams looking at establishing themselves as cup contender before next weekend’s finals in Melbourne.

Getting the early jump on the Bears the Adrenaline managed to pin the Bears in the zone for the first 5 minutes of the game peppering goaltender Nick Boucher with a flurry of shots.  The Bears finally caught a break with Cam Dion being sent off for roughing giving the Bears the first powerplay of the night.

Unable to capitialise on the man advantage, the Bears found themselves back under pressure with the Adrenaline buzzing around their net.

With only 2 minutes to go in the first period the Adrenaline opened the scoring with Shane Lovdahl finding a hole through a screened Nick Boucher. 

The second period didn’t offer any relief for the Bears with the Adrenaline extending their lead to 3-0 after Keane and Oddy both finished off 3-2 rushes on two separate powerplay opportunities. 

The 3rd period didn’t start promising for the Bears with Cass Delsar picking off a cross ice pass to score a shorthanded goal only 12 seconds into the period. 

Still on the powerplay the momentum finally shifted for the Bears with Lauko tipping the point shot from Pelikvosky into the top shelf to put the Bears on the scoreboard.  

The Bears took their foot off the gas and buried their second goal of the night thanks to Vladan Stransky driving the net and deflecting a centering pass behind goaltender Oliver Martin. 

Only down by 2 goals with 12 minutes to play the Bears continued to apply the pressure and found themselves back on the powerplay with 6 minutes to go. Moving the puck back and forth along the point Eric Begin blasted a one timer shot off the shin pads of Vlad Rubes to pull the Bears within one goal of tying the game. 

With the clock winding down Josh Harding was sent off for slashing giving the Bears a powerplay for the final 2 minutes of the game. Michal Lauko proved to be the hero for the Bears snapping a 5 hole shot to tie the game 4-4 with only 1:01 left on the clock.

Nick Boucher came up huge for the Bears in the shoot out stopping all 3 shots he faced and Vladan Stransky scored the game winning goal for the Bears.

The Habitat Furniture Man of the Match went to Murray Wand for his outstanding performance on defense. 

Coach Vlad Rubes thought’s on the shoot out win. “For the first 2 periods our game was complicated with a number of individual mistakes and punished by the well skating Adelaide team.”

“We made a few tactical changes before the start of the 3rd period, everybody started skating hard, playing what is expected of them and we were awarded with 4 unanswered goals and the SO win.”

The win now secures 3rd position for the Bears on the AIHL ladder and the second semi final at next weekend’s finals in Melbourne against the Melbourne Ice.