Playing in front of a sold out audience of 1300 at the Ice House arena, the Melbourne Ice were seeking redemption after losing 4-3 to the Bears two weeks ago.

The Ice scored first thanks to Brad Vigon cashing in on a great cycling play in the corner giving the Ice an early 1-0 lead. The Bears struggled to control the puck on rebounds, which proved costly with another goal scored by Melbourne Captain Lliam Webster. 

Melbourne scored their first of 5 power play goals on the night with 4.32 left in the first period, giving the Ice a commanding 3-0 lead. The Bears finally got their opportunity on the power play, with defenseman Valdy Pelikovsky wasting no time to score only 10 seconds into the power play, with help from a great screen provided in front by Michael Schlamp. 

The Bears spent most of the second period shorthanded with the Ice awarded two separate 5 on 3 opportunities. Michael Schlamp gave the Bears some life at the end of the period scoring on a break away to make the score 7-2. 

The final period saw Melbourne score another 2 goals while the Bears were short handed. The Ice ran away with the game 9-2. 

"We can't win a game being a man down all the time" said Bears forward Scott Townsend.

The Ice outshot the Bears 35-16 in the game; however it was the number of penalties taken by the Bears that cost them the game. A total of 50 penalty minutes were handed out to the Bears compared to only 12 for the Ice.  

“We faced the better team tonight, had number of costly penalties and nothing really worked for us with refereeing below the AIHL standard. Congrats to Melbourne on the great atmosphere at the rink. We have to live a new day today and win in Adelaide.” said Coach Rubes. 

The Bears travel to Adelaide today to play the Adrenaline at 3.30pm.