As posted by Daniel Eade on Twitter the other day, next seasons AIHL season will have a new twist; conferences.  Eade’s broke the news by tweeting “The @AIHL will have two conferences next season, Eastern & Western”.

The move comes after the inclusion of the Perth Thunder in next seasons schedule.

Eade also gave an indication of the scheduling in his tweet, “Teams will play Teams from ‘other’ conference twice (H&A). East will play each other 4 times. West will play each other 4+ times for balance”.

The conferences will be comprised of:

East: Sydney bears, Sydney Ice Dogs, Newcastle North Stars, Caberra Knights and Gold Coast Blue Tongues

West: Melbourne Ice, Melbourne Mustangs, Adelaide Adrenaline and newcomers, Perth Thunder.

For more details, be sure to read the full post on The Other Hewitt.

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The Melbourne Ice have “broken the curse” and are the first team to be both minor premiers and AIHL Champions, taking home the Goodall Cup on Sunday afternoon after defeating the Newcastle North Stars.

Image courtesy of The Age

Congratulations Melbourne Ice, 2011 AIHL Champions.

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Of course, we all know that Matt Amado is in fact NOT Dave Upton, but apparently the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) don’t.

Today during the online stream of the AIHL semi-finals when the AIHL announced the league MVP runner ups, they showed an image of Dave Upton when announcing Matt Amado.  There is quite simply no excuse for such a simple mistake to be made.

This error was not the only problem today though, as the entire live stream itself was unusable for the entire first period of semi-final 1 between the Melbourne Ice and Adelaide Adrenaline.  To their credit the stream was fixed as soon as possible and provided great quality video and audio of the games.

Hopefully they will have corrected the Matt Amado image by tomorrows stream of the AIHL Final game between the Newcastle North Stars and Melbourne Ice.

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The 2011 AIHL regular season has wrapped up this last weekend, with the Melbourne Ice taking out the H Newman Reid Trophy for the top team after the regular season.  They finished the season with an impressive 21 wins and 7 losses, giving them 65 points, 6 ahead of the second placed Newcastle North Stars.  So a big congratulations to the Ice for their victory.

Finals Seeding

The Finals will consist of 2 semi-finals on the Saturday and the Final on Sunday.  The 2 semi’s will see the Melbourne Ice face the Adelaide Adrenaline and the Newcastle North Stars take on the Sydney Ice Dogs.  The final will be played between the victors of these contests.  The Finals are always fast-paced exciting hockey, so be sure to be there or catch the games streamed live online.

The Blue Tongues Season

Another Tongues season has come and gone and it’s been full of highs and lows.

Standout Players

Without a doubt the most standout player on the Tongues this season was Tobias Falk.  Falk exemplified the true team-first playmaker.  His passing was exceptional, his skating smooth and as it turned out in the latter half of the season, his shot was deadly accurate.  Playing alongside Matt Amado most the season, Falk went from setup guy to being the #1 fan favorite import on the team.

As far as rookies go, Alex Hall had a fantastic season.  His 11 points were (i believe) the highest of all rookies in the league this season, and saw a lot of quality ice time.  Hall has amazing potential and will continue to grow and be a force on the Blue Tongues in future years.

Luke Fiveash may not have started the season with the Blue Tongues, but he finished it with an almost zealous cult following.  His acrobatic style and spectacular saves helped the team win vital games and carried them into a true race for the Finals.

Dave Upton needs to introduction to fans.  Since 2005 when Dave played for the team as a fresh faced 15 year old, Dave has always been a core member of the team.  Sadly, all things must end and Dave’s time with the Blue Tongues has ended as he heads to Sydney for work.  We wish Dave the very best of luck and hope that one day we’ll see him back in the Blue Jersey!

The Good

Defeating the Melbourne Ice has to be one of the standout moments for the fans.  The history between the clubs and the intensity of the games made that series a true one for the books.  Another game to remember is the second last of the season where the Tongues defeated the Newcastle North Stars in Newcastle; something that has only happened twice in their club history.

Seeing the Mustangs IHC enter the AIHL is a highlight, not for the Blue Tongues but for hockey in general.  The growth of the league is fantastic and the Mustangs did well in their first season.

The Bad

Walker-Gate, a name coined after the Ice Dogs were given a reprieve for playing an unsanctioned Nathan Walker early in the season has gone on too far.  People need to get over it.

Chemistry issues early in the season caused early Tongues games to end in less than desirable scorelines.  Add that to the coaches desire to play Kane “can’t stop a puck” Easterbrook for 6 games more than he should have all but put the Blue Tongues in a very tough position.  CJ Anderson was forced to sit on the bench and watch Kane fumble his way through games, when in reality he should have been playing.

Team disruption issues caused by non-passing star imports caused alleged rifts among the team, and also in the Stands.  Fans were heard commenting about how scoring chances were lost because people would not pass.  Then there were the rumours that some players would not play on a line with some others, causing what appeared to be major chemistry issues on the ice.

The Ugly

The Mustangs game on the Saturday will be remembered for one thing; a coach so out of control he lost the game for his team.  I have heard people talk about how the Stangs were goons that game, and i want to point out that the team simply followed the example led by their coach at the time.  As soon as he was ejected from the game the Mustangs settled down and played much better hockey.  Don’t hate the Mustangs for that game, as it takes 2 to tango.

A forfeiture is hard to take, especially when it could be argued that it cost a spot in the finals.  The Sunday game against the Ice Dogs was cancelled due to a malfunction at the Gold Coast Rink.  Both teams agreed it was unplayable and the league ruled the match a forfeit.  This was not the first time this had happened, and the Melbourne Ice were forced to forfeit a game a few seasons back for the same reason.  People need to stop hating the Ice Dogs for that situation, as the Ice Dogs and Tongues BOTH agreed that the ice was unplayable.  As i understand it (having read the full report) the Dogs did not petition for the forfeit, that was the leagues decision.  As i said in an earlier blog post, don’t hate the league for the decision, hate the Gold Coast rink for being so crap and if you must, hate the team for choosing to play out of that rink.

Looking Forward…

It’s the long off-season we go through now.  6 months of no AIHL hockey for us Blue Tongues fans, gives us plenty of time to speculate on what could happen.  How will the team look without Dave Upton?  Who will the new imports be? Will the Blue Tongues play at the Gold Coast? Will this be the last season captain Ross Howell laces up the skates?  We sure hope not!

The AIHL are rumoured to be bringing in rink standards as of next season and the Gold Coast rink is well below this standard.  Contrary to popular belief, the league CAN rule the rink below standard and force the Blue Tongues to find a new rink.   As a fan of this team i hope those in charge are taking this possibility very seriously.  The good news is, there are always rinks up in Brisbane which are well above standard.

The Blue Tongues season may be over, but don’t forget that the 2011 AIHL Finals are this weekend, the 3rd and 4th September, 2011.  Full details can be found here.

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The Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) announced today a joint Australia / New Zealand ice hockey tournament played annually between the 2 top teams from each country.  The “Trans-Tasman Champions League” should start next season with Australia playing host.

The news of the joint venture was broken on social media sites Twitter and Facebook earlier today.

Here is an excerpt from the AIHL website about the news:

This is an incredible step forward for both the AIHL and the NZIHL and brings the 2 nations closer to the possibility of a joint Ice Hockey League at a later time.

You can read the full article by going here:

http://www.theaihl.com/leagues/newsletter.cfm?clientID=3856&leagueID=11464&page=54823

You can also join in on the discussions via twitter using the hash-tag #AIHL or on Facebook.

Related posts:

1. Congratulations Melbourne Ice: 2010 AIHL Champions
2. He Endorsed The League? Oh Wait…
3. AIHL Vs IHA

Saw an interesting tweet just a while back about a particular magical character wearing a league hoodie when not at a particular magical school.  If you’re like most, you probably smiled at the thought of that, except it’s possibly not a laughing matter at all.

Is using a fictional character or celebrity to promote a commercial product ok to do?  In essence it says the people who own that character possibly endorse the product, which of course is not the case.   Last season someone in the UK allegedly received a cease and desist letter because they “jokingly” used a popular movie character to promote a commercial product for a football team.

Ok? Not ok? Leave your thoughts below.

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1. Trans-Tasman Champions League

The AIHL, governing body of the Australian Ice Hockey League has ruled that the Gold Coast Blue Tongues will FORFEIT their cancelled game last sunday, giving the Ice Dogs the full 3 points.

Epic Fail AIHL!

I can understand that the home team failed to provide a playable ice surface, and as such, they could not keep to their end of the agreed game schedule.  The issue however (cracked ice) happened overnight and was something that was out of everybody’s control.

Note: I have removed the previous content as have looked deeper into the situations i had mentioned and felt the content was no longer valid.

Blue Tongues fans should be very upset at this result, but not because the AIHL came to this particular decision.

The more important issue that Blue Tongues fans should be upset about is that the rink they play in is so below standard that something like this should happen in the first place.  The team need a new rink, plain and simple, and the best way to go about that is simply by relocating the team back to Brisbane, if that could be done.

Related posts:

1. Team Responsibility, Misdirected Anger and the AIHL Decision
2. AIHL Vs IHA
3. Adrenaline Champs, Off-Seasons & the AIHL Rumour Mill

Another weekend of Blue Tongues hockey has come to an end.   The boys in blue split the weekend with a 5-0 loss to the Ice Dogs on Saturday followed by a 7-5 win against the Bears today.

Saturday’s loss against the Ice Dogs hurts us a little as they’re the team directly in competition with us for a playoff spot.  We were without Mike McRae for that game, as he sat so Mikki Levy could play the minimum number of games going forward.  We were also without core depth players like Zach Daunt, Jon Bale, Dave Upton and Jack Conner.  The Ice Dogs are never an easy team to beat, especially in their own barn.  Rolling just 2 lines against them gave the Blue Tongues an incredibly hard hill to climb, and at the end of the day the local team was stronger and better on the day.

Sunday was a much better game and saw the return of local favorite Luke Fiveash between the pipes for the Blue Tongues.  McRae was back in the lineup today and his 4 assists showed just how valuable he is to the team.  Tobias Falk and Matt Amado both picked up hatricks, with Falk netting an incredible 5 on 3 shorthanded marker from the blueline.  Falk ended up the MVP with 3G and 2A for the game.

Around the league

The weekend had 2 standout matches / series.  On Saturday night the Canberra Knights, currently 7th in the league with 5 wins from 17 games played absolutely destroyed the Newcastle North Stars 14-4.  This is one of the largest scorelines in recent years and has left a lot of people thinking “WTF!”.  Kudos to the Knights for the win, great game guys.  The other match/series was the 2 games the Adelaide Adrenaline played against the traveling Melbourne Ice.   The Adrenaline did great work to win both games in overtime (shootout).

The Blue Tongues are at home next weekend where they host the Sydney Ice Dogs.

Related posts:

1. Weekly Faceoff: Tongues Fall, AIHL Awards And More
2. Make Or Break Weekend and Matt Amado Interview
3. Staring Down The Barrel At The 2011 AIHL Finals

Hi all, have been busy tonight updating all the stats and standings on the blue tongues website. All stats including the box score are all updated.!

Also, don’t forget to head to the AIHL website to read the interview with Matt Amado.

Related posts:

1. BTs at AIHL Playoffs, Brad Smulders and 2009 Stats
2. Blue Tongues Season Opener Goes To Shootout
3. Matt Amado interview

The Weekly Faceoff is a regular column talking about all things Tongues, in and around the AIHL.

Another week is done and dusted.  Another weekend of AIHL games in the books and another team or 2 in the NHL sent to play golf.

Period 1: Blue Tongues Drop 2 In Adelaide

Image Courtesy Of http://www.adelaideadrenaline.com.au

It took a few games, but the Blue Tongues are finally on the points board… barely.  The team traveled to Adelaide this last weekend to face off against the Adelaide Adrenaline; a team we historically struggle against on the road.  The boys forced a shootout in the Saturday game but could not capitalise in the shootout and ended up dropping the game 5-4.  The positive is they managed to pick up a point and get on the points board.  Sunday was a bit different with the Adrenaline allegedly dominating most of the game, resulting in the Blue Tongues losing 5-3.  For the Blue Tongues, this puts some early season strain on the team, who are 2nd last in the league with just 1 point after 4 games.  Only the Sydney Bears have a worse record (1 win from 5 games).  In a league where teams like the Melbourne Ice, Newcastle North Stars and Melbourne Mustangs have blasted out of the gates, it is going to take some seriously big (consistent) wins to get the Tongues up into a finals contending position.

Period 2: AIHL Awards

I know it’s very early in the season to raise this, but watching the NHL playoffs got me thinking; why doesn’t the AIHL have annual awards?  We may not be a professional league like the NHL, but we do still have rookies, MVP players and killer netminding.  It would be great if the AIHL were to create annual awards, and name them after great Australian Hockey Players from the past.  I would propose an AIHL equivalent to the Calder, Vezina, Conn Smyth, Lady Byng and Rocket Richard.  Of course, there would have to be a way to maybe limit certain awards to local players only, or the majority of awards will always go to imports.  Just a thought anyway.

Period 3: AIHL Update

The North Stars finally dropped a game this last weekend, falling 6-4 to the Ice Dogs.  The Mustangs gave the Ice their first loss of the season also, beating them 5-4 in a shootout. Interestingly, it is the Ice Dogs who have the leagues best GAA, who after 5 games have let in on average, 3.40 goals per game.  They back that up with 5.00 GFA.  The North Stars, who have a league leading 6.00 GFA are third in GAA with 3.75 goals against per game.

The AIHL Standings as of today are:

Overtime: NHL Playoffs

No doubt you’ve been following the NHL playoffs so are aware of the spanking that the Tampa Bay Lightning put on the Washington Capitals, sending them packing in 4 straight games.  Just when people were getting over the shock of that, the Boston Bruins did the same, sweeping the (Stanley Cup favorites) Philadelphia Flyers out of the post season.  In the West things are a still going.  The Canucks look good, but have struggled a little against the Predators defense.  They hold a 3-2 lead in their series.  Just today the Red Wings pulled off a 4-3 win against the Sharks to keep their chances alive.  The Sharks lead that series 3-2.  The big question is, regardless of who wins in the West, are they good enough to stop the Bolts or Bruins?

Related posts:

1. Weekly Faceoff: 2011 AIHL Gets Underway
2. Weekend Roundup: Ice Dogs Bite & Bears Fall
3. Weekly Faceoff: McRae, The AIHL & World Champs