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 Blue Tongues are on the road this weekend facing off against the Ice Dogs and Bears with a depleted team due to injuries and personal committments. The Tongues solid regular 2nd line made up of Trevor Walsh, Dave Upton and Matt Stubbert are all out this weekend, as is forward Jack Conner and key stay at home defenseman Don Burke.
The lack of depth was prominant in Saturdays 4-1 loss to the Sydney Ice Dogs. The scoreline does not truly reflect the game or how even the teams were, but the loss does show that depth players are essential to a strong team.
Sunday saw a similar situation occur with the Blue Tongues going down 3-2 to the Bears in a shootout. While not a regulation loss, a loss to the Bears is still very much a shock considering they’ve only 4 points this season, including the 2pts they picked up tonight. Andre Selander picked up the only 2 regulation goals.
The Tongues second line has been vital in the recent string of home wins putting up goals and setting up plays. They’re also a solid 2-way line who shut down the opponents while giving the imports a chance to have a rest. Jack Conner, who has been out a few weeks already brings speed and secondary scoring and can play from the top line down, so is very flexible.
One of the biggest losses this weekend however has been Don Burke, who has been absolutely solid on the blueline this season.
According to sources, the Blue Tongues will go into next weekends road games Vs the Melbourne Ice without Walsh, Burke, Upton or Conner.
