Canberra Brave captain Mark Rummukainen has seen "more bad times than good" in ice hockey and he's been left gutted he could miss the best of them all.
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Rummukainen will miss the Brave's Australian Ice Hockey League championship tilt after he "basically ripped [his] elbow off [his] tricep" late in the season.
It left him unable to work as a carpenter and ruled him out of what could be the Brave's finest weekend, starting with a semi-final against the Perth Thunder in Melbourne on Saturday.
A win will catapult them into the grand final on Sunday, where they'll look to make up for last year's shattering loss in the decider.
Rummukainen won't be on the ice as the Brave seek vengeance for three years of heartache but he'll be there to help in any way he can.
It doesn't matter if he's "giving advice to some guys, helping coaching - mate, I'll fill up water bottles".
Rummukainen won the Goodall Cup in his debut season with the Canberra Knights in 1998 and forged a legacy as one of Australia's best.
He still remembers the moment he and fellow veteran Jordie Gavin heard the club was going under a month out from the 2014 season.
"We looked at each other and thought 'well that's it, hockey is done, I'm not going to move somewhere else to play hockey'," Rummukainen said.
"I think I was 30 or 31 at the time with a young family. I thought it was all finished. But then we started talking and I was fairly adamant we could start something up.
"It was either stop playing or get something done. We decided to get something done and here we are.
"To win it now, having the Brave start the way it did, the success we've had as the Brave, for that to culminate with winning a Cup, it would probably be my proudest achievement in ice hockey.
"I've represented Australia for over a decade and won gold medals and whatnot, but to get this done and go from the beginning, the birth of a new team to eventual Cup champions, that would probably be my proudest moment.
"We saw the good times and the bad times, more bad times than good. But it led to bigger and better things."
The winner will take on the victor of the heated Melbourne derby between the Ice and the Mustangs in the grand final on Sunday.
AIHL SEMI-FINALS
Saturday: Melbourne Ice v Melbourne Mustangs at 3pm. Canberra Brave v Perth Thunder at 6pm.
Sunday: Winners to play in the grand final.
