Mustangs and Ice eye finals

The Melbourne ice hockey clubs have continued their stranglehold over the AIHL competition, with the finals series approaching.

Melbourne Mustangs remain on top of the ladder and are well positioned to take part in their first finals series.

In their last three matches they have dominated Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra, having 50 or more shots on goal each match.

Canberra Brave lived up to their name, but were just beaten in a 4-3 loss to the Mustangs in which Melbourne dominated the shots on goal a whopping 51 to 15.

Melbourne also easily accounted for the Bears 4-0, adding more misery to Sydney’s season.

Last month Melbourne continued Newcastle’s woes with a damaging 6-3 win at home. The win was set up in the first two thirds with the Mustangs dominating shots on goal and taking a 4-1 lead.

Their counterparts, Melbourne Ice are also enjoying a successful season. They are currently third position only a few points behind the Mustangs.

Melbourne went down to Adelaide earlier this month in a shootout. After leading the match by two goals heading into the final period, Ice relinquished control and the match ended in a shootout with Adelaide winning the match 3-2.

Following this they took on the bottom-placed Bears and annihilated them 10-1. They then took on the North Stars and ground out a 5-4 win.

At the time of printing Melbourne was once again taking on Newcastle but this time playing away before taking on the Sydney Ice Dogs in what should be an exciting match.

The Ice Dogs have become both the Mustangs and Ice’s main challenger for the title as the last year’s premiers have run into some good form in the past few weeks.  They are on a four-match winning streak and will be tough competition for the Ice.