The Blue Tongues have just 2 games left in the regular season to make their final push for the 2011 AIHL Finals, their opponent; the always challenging Newcastle North Stars.
The team sit 5th on the ladder, 2 points behind the Adelaide Adrenaline who also play this weekend. Adelaide take on the Canberra Knights and the Sydney Ice Dogs. The Adrenaline wont have an easy time of it, as both the Knights and Doggies will be looking for solid wins.
Matt Amado broke his own AIHL scoring record this season.
The Blue Tongues do have a tougher final 2 games, even if from a purely psychological point of view. The boys in blue have not had too much luck against Newcastle over the course of their time in the league. In the 22 regular season games played since 2005, the Blue Tongues have just 4 wins, and only 1 of those was on the road, in Newcastle. With those stats to dampen the mood, it is vitally important to go into this weekend with BELIEF that they can win.
They need to believe that Matt Ezzy, who has always been a big part of those terrible stats is no longer as good as he once was (just look at his stats this year).
They need to believe that the perfect pass does not exist, and sometimes pucks on net from all locations is key to a victory.
They need to believe that hockey is a team sport, and passing, dumping and chasing are all equally as important as scoring the game winning goal.
But most importantly, they need to believe that they CAN win.
Matt Amado Interview
Finally, here is an interview that Matt Amado did with the AIHL recently, talking about this weekends games. There is no video, so just hit play and listen along.
The games start at 5pm this weekend. Updates are available on the Blue Tongues website as well as all relevant twitter accounts. I believe Newcastle also stream audio play-by-play of the games, so keep an eye out for a link.
The pointy end of the season is truly upon us. The Blue Tongues have wrapped up their home games for the season and now have just 4 games left to play, all against tough opponents in even tougher venues.
As it stands right now the Blue Tongues are in 4th position on the ladder, just 1 point ahead of the Adelaide Adrenaline and 7 points back from a 3rd place Sydney Ice Dogs. The Adrenaline are the biggest threat for the Tongues and have the advantage of an easier schedule.
Here is how the 2 teams break down of the final 4 games including the record against those teams this season.
Gold Coast Blue Tongues
Away – Melbourne Ice (1 win, 1 loss, 1 shootout loss)
Away – Melbourne mustangs (3 wins)
Away – Newcastle North Stars (2 losses)
Away – Newcastle North Stars
Adelaide Adrenaline
Away – Canberra Knights (1 win, 1 loss)
Away – Sydney Bears (1 shootout win, 2 wins)
Home – Canberra Knights
Home – Sydney Ice Dogs (1 win, 2 losses)
The Blue Tongues don’t really have any easy teams to face, except maybe the Mustangs.
Tobias Falk has been consistently good all season for the Tongues and deserves to be #1 choice for team MVP
They know they can defeat the Ice as this last weekend showed, and they have the confidence of knowing that they can compete with the Ice down in Melbourne. The North Stars are the key to this series I believe, as the Tongues history against Newcastle, in Newcastle has not been good at all over the years. That said, Matt Ezzy has been very normal this season so as long as our boys can bring the firepower they should compete. The last time they played the North Stars they did so without a full roster and zero team chemistry, so the next 2 games could be vastly different. The Tongues should pick up a win against the Mustangs and I believe they should pick up a win against the North Stars. That gives a short estimate of at least 6 of a possible 12 points.
The Adrenaline on the other hand are playing well and have a relatively easy run of things. The Bears are an easy team for them based on past history with the Knights and Ice Dogs being the key to their season. The game against the Bears will almost certainly be a win (although would love it not be). The Ice Dogs I believe will win once again and based on games this season they should split the 2 games against the Knights. That gives the Adrenaline a short estimate of 6 points from 12.
If both teams pick split their series, the Tongues will remain 1 point ahead and will secure that finals spot.
Right now it’s too close to call.
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.
The Weekly Faceoff is a regular column talking about all things Tongues, in and around the AIHL.
What happens when a team determined to win meets a team lacking chemistry? Find out more below.
Period 1: Blue Tongues Tear Knights
After 2 shaky performances against the North Stars, and a 2 losses on the road in Adelaide (1 in a shootout), the Blue Tongues were home last weekend to host the visiting Canberra Knights, captained by former Blue Tongue and always fan-favorite, Mark “Rummo” Rummokainen. The Blue Tongues were hungry for a win and determined to send a clear and defined message to the rest of the league; we may have 1 point in 4 games, but watch the @$#@ out. And that they did. A 6-3 victory on Saturday saw a very motivated Blue Tongues out-play the Knights in almost all areas of the ice. The Knights, who looked shaky most of the game looked to be lacking team chemistry, but the Tongues know better than to underestimate the boys from Canberra. Sunday saw an even more motivated Blue Tongues simply destroy the Knights 8-1. Even the consistently (bad) reffing from “he who must not be named” was not enough to put a dampener on this Tongues performance, although there were times when we wondered if he did in fact have an eye on the ice. Mike McRae picked up the hatric in the demoralizing game for the Knights. This weekend the Tongues travel to Sydney to play the Ice Dogs and Bears.
Period 2: Contoversy, Blogs and Opinions
As many of you know, I am not exactly the most tactful person on the Interwebs; in fact, i’m often quite the opposite. But even I was more than a little shocked at how a personal blog post on AusPuck turned into a major issue to the extent that an apology was demanded of the author. If you’ve not yet read the whole thing, you can read the post and the comments here: http://www.auspuck.com.au/2011/05/aps-corner-the-aihl-is-asleep-at-the-helm/ . Now, last time i looked, AusPuck, much like LizardInsider is a personal blog dedicated to Australian Ice Hockey. It is not affiliated with, or run by a team or the league. What is said on personal blogs is simply a matter of opinion. Anybody who reads personal NHL blogs would know this. Criticism sucks, but it is ALWAYS going to be there, regardless of how much people try and control it. So to me, to have anybody demand an apology from AusPuck for posting an opinion (that was based upon fact) is simply bullshit. We often have the same issue on the Hockeypulse Forum, where opinions are hosed down if they are considered too extreme. Hockeypulse, much like AusPuck is unaffiliated with the league or any of its teams.
Period 3: Trew Vs Riesen
Those at the Blue Tongues games over the weekend would have seen Blue Tongues local Cam Trew pretty much make Alain Riesen of the Knights his b… well, you get what i’m saying. in a game that was pretty heated already, things got rough when Cam and Alain dropped the gloves… followed soon after by Riesen hitting the ice. The most shocking part of the whole incident was not the fight, but the participant. Many fans were shocked, and then in a state of respectful awe when they heard it was none other than Cam who won the fight. Way to go Cam for defending your goalie, a big LizardInsider Kudos to you.
Overtime: Geric & Johnson Injured
The games in Adelaide really hit the Tongues hard. Adam Geric left the ice in the first period of Saturdays game and did not return all weekend. The team announced early last week that both Geric and Matt Johnson would miss between 4 and 8 weeks each due to injuries. Both these players had a big impact on the Blue Tongues lineup against the North Stars, so losing them to injury could have potentially left a whole in the teams offense. Based upon what we saw vs the Knights last weekend, we might not need be so worried.
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:
| TEAM | GP | W | L | OTW | OTL | PTS | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle North Stars | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 48 | 30 |
| Melbourne Ice | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 27 | 18 |
| Mustangs Ice Hockey Club | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 34 | 32 |
| Sydney Ice Dogs | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 25 | 17 |
| Adelaide Adrenaline | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 21 | 26 |
| Canberra Knights | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 25 |
| Gold Coast Blue Tongues | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 23 |
| Sydney Bears | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 24 |
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?
