The Melbourne Ice finished the same way they started this season… on top. The Ice fairly dominated most of the season and were one of the most impressive home-teams all season, which gave them an extra step come the AIHL finals a few weeks back.
Defeating the Bears in the semi-final in what was an incredibly close game, the Ice then faced the defending champions, the Adelaide Adrenaline in the Final on Sunday. The Adrenaline fought hard locking the game 3-3 going into the 2nd intermission. The Ice were too strong however, and backed by a sell-out crowd at their new rink in Melbourne walked away victors with a 6-4 win.
Congratulations to the Ice for their well deserved victory.
I’ve been sitting on this post for the past week, wondering whether or not it was worthy of a blog post or not.
Last week the Blue Tongues were down in Melbourne taking on the Ice for back-to-back games. There was an incident during the Saturday game which had Blue Tongues forward Dallas Costanzo dive to allegedly block a shot and inadvertently trip an Ice player who went down and got injured. Costanzo was given a 2 minute minor for tripping and a game misconduct, meaning he would not be eligible to play on Sunday. As these games were “must-wins” for the Blue Tongues, losing Costanzo was a serious blow to the Tongues.
The Ice ended up winning both games, all but ending the Tongues playoffs hopes.
Back to that tripping penalty though, as that is the central point to this post. When it happened, the ref actually went and consulted with the AIHL rulebook before making the final ruling. This move has angered a few Blue Tongues fans, who believe a 2 minute tripping minor was all that was warranted. The ref, going out of his way to check the book ended Costanzo’s weekend, which had an impact on the Tongues playoffs hopes ending. This penalty has been discussed at length on Hockeypulse since those games.
Was it warranted? Did the ref go too far in making that call? As fans, we could argue this til the cows come home. Let me make it simple for you though. The AIHL rulebook clearly states under Rule 539 – Tripping:
b) A player who injures an opponent by tripping shall be assessed, at the discretion
of the Referee, a:
➤ Major penalty + Automatic Game Misconduct penalty (5’+GM)
or
➤ Match penalty (MP)
You can read the rules here: http://www.iihf.com/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/rules_part_two.pdf
Regardless of what we as fans think, the ref was 100% correct in making that call. In fact, by going out of his way to read the rulebook, he did incredible justice to the AIHL. Over the last few seasons we have seen and heard of our fair share of bad reffing. In this case, when a ref actually does the right thing, and goes above and beyond to ensure he does the right thing, people jump on him. This doesn’t seem right.
As fans, our hearts get in the way of our minds at times. I plead with you all though, for the love of the league and the Blue Tongues, be a a fair fan and unbiased. Leave that to fans from other teams. The penalty, while not to our liking, was a good call.
As any hockey player will tell you, your best player in any game must be your goalie. That is the reasoning the Blue Tongues used recently to sign their 5th import of the 2010 season; Reese Kalleitner. Reese, an experienced netminder who has seen time in leagues across North America is said to bring stability between the pipes for the Blue Tongues…
at the cost of the defense?
The Blue Tongues suffered a major loss a few weeks ago when Voldy Dashko returned to Canada, opting not to return. Voldy was a monster on the Blue Line, and when paired up with local Ben Spillane provided what could arguably be described as the biggest, and most fearsome Defensive pair in the AIHL this season. Voldy and Ben provided a line of defense that would not just stop the puck, but on more than one occasion, would flatten the opponent in the process.
But… Voldy left, therefore opening up the 5th import spot, and the Blue Tongues had until July 1st to fill that, or play the remainder of the 2010 season with just 4 imports. Not long after, the Blue Tongues suffered another big hit, when both Adam Gebara and Ben Spillane got injured. All of a sudden, the Blue Tongues went from a solid team with outstanding defense to a shaky team with swiss cheese in the Neutral Zone.
So… put yourself in the teams position. You have 2 good goalies in Luke Fiveash and CJ Anderson, and a third capable backup in Mark Paulsen. You have just lost one of your best defensive players for the season, and 2 others short-term. You have an import spot…
You go and get an import defenseman, right? I know I would, and from discussions with many people at the recent games, so would about 95% of everybody else watching the games.
So why the Blue Tongues went and used their 5th import spot on Reese Kalleitner is absolutely mind-boggling.
Which brings us to last weekends games against the visiting Melbourne Ice.
It took all of 30 seconds for fans to stare in wonder as new import Reese got caught out of position and made one of the most sloppy saves we’ve seen all season. To his credit, he did improve over the Saturday game and looked much better on Sunday. But did he play any better than Luke or CJ have? No, I don’t believe he did.
For those 2 games last weekend, we were witness to a dominant Melbourne Ice team tear holes in our defense. Time and time again, the Blue Tongues made bad passes or got caught behind the play as the Melbourne team simply turned our neutral zone into swiss cheese. Defensively, the Blue Tongues were out-matched by a fitter, faster and more skilled team. We missed Voldy, Ben and Adam on the Blue line, and it showed.
Kalleitner, in his debut game stopped 31 of 36 shots and followed that up on sunday stopping 35 of 39 shots. Good stats if you look at the numbers. Great stats if you look at the actual games themselves. But 2 losses all the same… and losses that many are wondering, may not have happened if the team had filled their defensive issues, rather than pick up another goalie.
From where the fans sit, the jury is still out on Reese Kalleitner.
The AIHL finals last weekend hosted some of the most exciting hockey many fans have seen, not to mention the sellout crowd to see the Gold Coast Blue Tongues make their first ever appearance in the AIHL finals. The Blue Tongues lost to the North Stars, who in turn lost to the 2009 AIHL Champions, the Adelaide Adrenaline in what was fast paced, end-to-end hockey.
The weekend however was not without controversy. Going into the weekend, Blue Tongues fans were aware that the veteran Milan Novysedlak would be starting in net, a move which had fans and opponents alike wondering “WTF?”. It turned out, this sentiment was not had by only Tongues fans.
- Fans feel Milan robbed Fiveash out of his goalie spot
Saturday evening during the first intermission between the Blue Tongues and North Stars I had a number of North Stars fans ask why the Blue Tongues regular season starter, Luke Fiveash, was not in net. We could only shrug of course, because that question is one we’d like to know the answer to also.
It must be said that Milan played a solid game in net on Saturday, and this blog post is not designed to take anything away from him or his game, merely to beg the question as to why he got the nod over Luke Fiveash.
According to the AIHL website, Luke Fiveash played 14 games this season (7W, 6L + 1 game where we lack correct stat data), averaging just 2.97 goals against and putting up an 88.86% save percent. He had the best GAA of all starting netminders (those who played 50% or more of their teams games). His save percent was equal to that of Newcastles Matt Ezzy. Luke also outplayed Matt Ezzy in 2 games earlier this season on the gold coast, only to have the defense let him down resulting in 2 shootout losses.
Compare this to Milan, who played 4 regular season games (3W, 1L), having missed the majority of the season due to a bad injury. His first game back after that injury was a bad 9-3 loss to the Melbourne Ice just 2 weeks ago.
OneNorth Stars fan commented that they were shocked that the Blue Tongues would play Milan when Luke was not only ready to play, but had already proven his ability to take on the North Stars. I had similar comments come from Ice, Ice Dogs, Bears and Adrenaline fans, as well as 2 business owners in the Newcastle region.
Since the game, there are rumours floating around that Milan may be announcing his retirement. Could this be connected to why he started? I don’t know. I feel for Luke. He’s a solid netminder who is a solid team guy, always doing what’s asked of him and never complaining. He helped carry the team to the playoffs, fans would have liked to see him where we believe he belongs; between the pipes.
