The Bears jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with the first goal of the game coming from Eric Begin on the powerplay, blasting a slap shot over the glove of Blue Tongues goalie Luke Fivesh. With 5 minutes to go in the first period, Dan Shaw scored his first of the season jumping on a rebound in front and burying it into the empty net. 

Despite being outshot 10-4 in the first period, Bears goalie Nick Boucher was solid in net and helped preserve the 2 goal lead.

The second period was a slow start for the Bears and the Blue Tongues quickly started to apply pressure, controlling the puck in the Bears offensive zone for the first 5 minutes of the period. Once again the Bears were bailed out by goalie Nick Boucher, shutting the door on the Blue Tongues offense. The closest the Blue Tongues came to scoring was a high bouncing puck that skimmed off the cross bar.

The final part of the second period saw the Bears regain the momentum thanks to a 'too many men on the ice' call sending the Bears to the powerplay. By the end of the second period no team could find the back of the net and the score remained 2-0 for the Bears.

The Bears awoke in the third period scoring another 2 goals early on to take the lead 4-0. Vlad Rubes scored the first goal, finishing off a great individual effort by defence man Nick Cleland to make the score 3-0.  Rubes then made a great cross ice feed on the next shift to Michael Schlamp, who drilled a slap shot past the Blue Tongues goalie making the score 4-0 for the home team.

The Blue Tongues were finally able to get 1 goal past Boucher before the half way mark of the period bringing the score to 4-1. The Bears responded quickly with Michael Schlamp scoring a shorthanded goal and his second of the night after crashing the net on the penalty kill to bury any hopes of the Blue Tongues come back.

With the score 5-1, the Bears ran away with the game scoring another 2 more before the period was over.  Goals coming from, Scott Townsend scoring off a beautiful wrist shot for his first AIHL goal ever and Roberto Franchini on the 3-2 rush shortly after. 

Bears Coach Vlad Rubes was impressed with the team in its best game of the season “We tried to keep a good tempo tonight; we have played with a short bench for the last couple of weeks, so it was nice to have 3 full lines.”

The Habitat Furniture Man of the Match went to Michael Schlamp for his 2 goal effort on the night.

“It was a tight game for the first two periods with both teams not playing their best hockey and a lot of turn overs. As a team we really picked up our game in the third and the pucks started going in and we know Nick is going to make some big stops behind you. We have a nice streak of games going and hopefully we can take it into next weekend” said Michael Schlamp.

The Bears will be looking to make it win number 5 at The Penrith Ice Palace when they take on The Adelaide Adrenaline on Sunday the 6th of June, the game starts at 5pm.