The Canberra Knights fell to a 5-3 defeat against the
Sydney Bears in front of  a sell-out crowd at the
Phillip Ice House in their AIHL game earlier tonight.

Bears import player Vladan Stransky was a one-man
highlight reel, putting in a five-point performance to
lead the Bears through a see-saw second-period that
saw five goals scored in a tumultuous four-minute
span.

The Knights started the game strong, and ended the
first period a goal up on Shaun Fairweather’s tally
four minutes in as the home side outshot the Bears
12-5 in the opening period.

But Sydney levelled the score 50 seconds from the
restart through Vladimir Rubes who fired into a vacant
net after Canberra goaltender Dylan Smart was taken
out of the play by a collision.

Two plays and 13 seconds later, Trevor Ross’ power
play goal put the Knights back into the lead only for
the Bears’ Brett Nelson-Bond to square the game again
22 seconds after.

Canberra hit the front again barely a minute later
when speedy Matt Lehoczky chased down a lose puck and
slapped a laser from the right face-off circle that
beat Sydney goalie Peter Haywood at the near post.

The Bears put the puck in the net again less than a
minute later only for the goal to be disallowed as net
was knocked off. Canberra’s Ross did however receive a
penalty on the play and Sydney’s Stransky finished off
a power play set up behind the net to tie the game at
3-3.

The combined offensive blitz resulted in the five
goals being scored from only six shots despite the
fact that two goaltenders between the pipes had
entered the game ranked second and third in the league
in save percentage.

But the game settled down as the period progressed and
the next goal only arrived mid-way through the third
period when the Bears scored a shorthanded game winner
after Stransky was able to hold up the puck at the
blue line, enabling Rubes to pick up the play and
score.

The visitors would add another when Murray Wand
finished off Stransky’s centering pass from the corner
with 6:51 remaining in the game.

Not to be outdone, the Knights pressed on and netted
the puck with about two minutes to go only for play to
be called back on an illegal hand pass.

Canberra piled on the pressure in the dying seconds
pulling netminder Smart for an extra attacker, but
were unable to save to game as the Bears ran out 5-3
winners.

The Knights take to the road next Saturday hoping to
avenge an earlier loss when they take on the Western
Sydney Ice Dogs at Blacktown.