Dean Vickerman is devastated as he admits the truth about his team "You look at all the numbers and you just say, we were really bad defensively"

Dean Vickerman admits his team simply didn’t have the answers for the New Zealand Breakers on Monday night, as Melbourne United fell to their biggest ever loss at John Cain Arena.

What loomed as one of the matches of the season was ultimately dominated by the Breakers, with star man Parker Jackson-Cartwright (23 points, 7 assists), Sam Mennenga (25 points) and Karim Lopez (17 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks) all huge in the 34-point win.

“Credit to them, they’re (the Breakers) sitting on top of the ladder and playing great basketball,” Vickerman said.

“We didn’t have the answers at all for them tonight.”

Melbourne’s stars simply never got going, with Ian Clark and Matthew Dellavedova restricted to just seven points between them, and MVP candidate Jack White unable to replicate his recent strong form.

Outside of Flynn Cameron (20 points), United provided very little resistance to an onslaught from the visiting team.

“You look at all the numbers and you just say, we were really bad defensively,” Vickerman admitted.

“It will be a brutal review tomorrow and I’m sure our boys will own it.

“We’ll own it as coaches as well, the mistakes we made and then we start thinking about Brisbane.”

Melbourne dropped to third on the ladder with the loss, while New Zealand locked down top spot.

United travels to Brisbane on Thursday night to take on the Bullets.

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Mark Jankowski fired it home with 2:42 left in overtime, but the officials went upstairs to look to see if the play was offside. It’s automatically reviewed, and it was ruled no goal which ruined the celebration in Raleigh. The league felt Jordan Staal wasn’t in control of the puck when he crossed the blueline. “That’s the toughest thing. You have it won, and then it gets turned over. I give the guys a ton of credit because our game didn’t change. We actually got better,” said Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour. A victory in Game 2 was paramount for the Senators. The franchise has never won a series falling behind 2-0, including last spring against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that’s happened 10 times in the past. During their run to the playoffs, the Senators were effective because they limited the scoring chances and won battles for pucks. The way the Canes play has made it difficult for Ottawa to repeat that success. This series is a hard, physical battle. The Senators have to be willing pay the price to create chances. Ottawa did a much better job of that in the third period by pushing the pace. The third period was frantic with both teams not trying to allow this game to get to overtime, but the Senators were the better team. If not for Ullmark, this game wouldn’t be close. Tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, he was the only reason they were in it. The Senators were outshot 30-16, and he made several highlight reel stops in that stretch. The Senators just weren’t very good until they got back to their game in the third and used their speed to pressure the Hurricanes. Ullmark, who had 27 stops in Game 1, came into this game with a 0-3-0 career playoff record against the Hurricanes with a 3.49 goals-against average and .884 save percentage. He was the Senators’ best player in the first game, and by far the top performer in this one. 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Working down low, Batherson attempted a pass that bounced back to him and then beat Andersen high at 10:47 of the second to get Ottawa on the board.It was only the seventh time in franchise history that the Senators have come back from a two-goal deficit to tie a game. That gave the Senators a much-needed boost of energy because they were feeling nothing but frustration, especially after Andersen shut them out with 22 stops in Game 1. A terrible turnover by Stutzle on a powerplay allowed the Hurricanes to pull out to a 2-0 lead at 7:50 of the second. He tried to do it all himself, which resulted in a turnover that set up a 2-on-1. Sebastian Aho took a pass from Jordan Staal and chipped it home for a shorthanded effort. 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News

Dean Vickerman is devastated as he admits the truth about his team “You look at all the numbers and you just say, we were really bad defensively”

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