Mustangs v Brave Preview

The opening home game of the season always brings plenty of excitement. Expectations are high and teams will be trying to set themselves up for successful campaigns. The MOAT: Melbourne Mustangs have won their previous two home openers, and will be hoping that pattern continues when they welcome the CBR Brave to the O’Brien Group Arena for back-to-back games this weekend.

The Mustangs will be looking for a big improvement from last week’s defeat in the Melbourne derby. They were instantly on the back foot after they allowed former team mate Joey Hughes to score in the first minute, and were then unable to find a way past new Melbourne Ice goaltender Troy Davenport, who marked his AIHL debut with a shutout. The 2016 season is still in its early stages, but the Mustangs can’t afford to fall off the pace again. If they are to achieve consistent success, they will need everyone to step up to fill the void left by Hughes and other departed players.

The Brave head to Melbourne hoping to continue their perfect start to their season which featured wins over both Sydney teams last weekend. They kicked off their campaign with a dominant 5-2 win over the Sydney Ice Dogs on home ice and backed it up a day later, winning 6-3 away over the Sydney Bears. Over the past two season the Brave have been a consistently competitive team and they usually match up very well against the Mustangs. The games regularly go down to the wire, all four contests in 2015 were decided by one goal, and the Mustangs two victories came in shoot outs.

This year’s major recruit for the Brave was the 2015 leading AIHL point scorer and former NHL draftee Geordie Wudrick. In a case of if you can’t beat them make them join you, the Brave were leading 3-0 over Newcastle in their semi-final and had one foot in the 2015 Grand Final before Wudrick proved too much to handle, scoring a hat trick which ended the Brave’s season. He seems to have quickly established a formidable combination with Canadian import Neal Prokop, which could spell trouble for the Mustangs unless they find their own scoring touch in 2016.

As this is their first opportunity to play in front of a home crowd, the Mustangs will be keen to put on a good display. Their failure to score in the previous game will be bearing on the minds of the team, so it is important that they can get on the score sheet first. From there the Mustangs will be able to dictate the play, which will give them a far better chance of victory than if they have to play catch up against such a talented opponent.

It will be a tough set of games for the Mustangs and it would be great to see a large turnout of support to help give them the edge in the contest, and to hopefully witness the first of many victories for the year.

Melbourne Mustangs v CBR Brave
Saturday 30 April, 5pm
Sunday 1 May, 4pm
O'Brien Group Arena, Pearl River Road, Docklands

Memberships available from membership.melbournemustangs.com.au
Single game tickets available at bit.ly/MustangsTickets

The official MOAT: Melbourne Mustangs after match function will be held in the newly renovated St Moritz Bar at O'Brien Group Arena after each game.
Come and meet your Melbourne Mustangs!