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.
The Sydney bears travel to the gold coast this weekend to play the home team, blue tongues. The Tongues are coming off a weekend they would rather forget after the AIHL ruled the sunday game vs the Ice Dogs a forfeit due to the rink being unplayable.
7 points back from 4th place with 3 games in hand, the Tongues need to win these 2 games.
Games start at 4pm both days, assuming of course the rink works.
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.
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.
The AIHL posted today a great interview they did with blue tongues import sniper, Matt amado. You can read this on the AIHL website – http://theaihl.com.au
