Over the next 2 days the top 4 teams will fight it out to discover who will be the AIHL Champion for 2010. After a grueling regular season only the Sydney Bears, Adelaide Adrenaline, Newcastle North Stars and finals host Melbourne Ice remain in the competition. These 4 teams each play their own style of hockey and all of them want to raise the cup as much as the next. But, who will be strong enough to make it? Last seasons winners, the Adrenaline are looking to win back-to-back championships. The Newcastle North Stars have a deadly offensive lineup including Brian Bales and Peter Cartright who surpassed last seasons record set by Brad Smulders of the Blue Tongues. The Sydney Bears have been looked on as the underdogs, but have a well balanced team that is dangerous to underestimate. Lastly, the Melbourne Ice, who have a new rink, new attitude and a serious home-ice advantage.
As a fan of the sport of hockey, it’s hard not wanting to throw support behind one of these 4 teams during the finals. I personally would love to see the Bears get up over the other teams, but a first round match against the Ice could prove a mighty challenge. The Ice losing in the semi would be a great thing to see however. The North Stars / Adrenaline matchup will be a good one as we see great offense meet great defense. If the Adrenaline can shut down Bales and Cartright, I think they could take the win.
Game 1 is this afternoon with the 2nd semi Saturday night at 7:15pm. The Final is Sunday afternoon.
A year ago Brad Smulders lit the AIHL up on the score sheet, setting an impressive 76 points AIHL record in the process. His 33 Goals and 43 Assists helped the Tongues make their first ever finals appearance.
Last weekend that record was beaten, not just by 1 player but 2, from the same club.
Brian Bales & Peter Cartwright have been standout imports for the Newcastle North Stars all season, helping them finish as regular season premiers and once again be a strong contender for the cup. Last weekend while the Blue Tongues were in Newcastle for their final 2 games of the season, the Bales / Cartwright duo turned a depleted and under-manned Blue Tongues squad into new AIHL records.
In the 2 games over the weekend Bales put up 5 goals and 8 assists putting him on 81 points (30G 51A) , well past Smulders’ previous record. Cartwright put up 7 goals and 8 assists on the weekend giving him a season total of 78 points (36G 42A). Cartwright also set a new North Stars goal scoring record, passing the previous record of 35 goals set by BJ Pelkey in 2008. The current AIHL goal scoring record is held by Matt Amado of the Brisbane Blue Tongues in 2007.
Congratulations go out to both Bales and Cartwright for their accomplishment.
The level of quality of players is increasing each year in the AIHL and no doubt Bales new record will be challenged and beaten by someone else at some point in time.
Congratulations also to the Blue Tongues 15 year old rookie netminder Nick Novysedlak who was thrown in the deep end this last weekend against a very strong North Stars squad. Nick played with great poise and positioning and sent a message that he is a player to watch out for in the future. Nick is the son of Blue Tongues veteran netminder, Milan Novysedlak.
With just 4 games left in the regular season for our Blue Tongues, and all 4 of them against the Newcastle Northstars, the Tongues have just one thing on their mind… turn out the lights on the boys from Twinkletown!
Matches between the Northstars and Blue Tongues has always been some of the best hockey to watch, and these last few games shall be no different. The Northstars bring with them a strong offensive lineup and solid netminding from Matt Ezzy (product of Gold Coast Ice Hockey, btw). The Blue Tongues bring size, grit and a strong offensive scoring punch from imports Mike McRae and Dallas Costanzo. This season the Blue Tongues have a new weapon however. One that could play a huge role in these final 4 games; Reese Kalleitner. Reese has been solid in all his games played this season, and looks to continue his domination between the pipes this weekend.
Going into this weekends games, the Northstars have just 8 regulation wins, but have managed to pull off a whopping 7 shootout victories, ensuring their place in the standings with 39 points! The Blue Tongues have 9 wins and 1 shootout victory and currently sit tied for 4th spot with 30 points. While the Stars have put up more goals this season, the goals against for both teams (62 & 66 respectively) are both in the top 3 in the league.
The current standings are:
| TEAM | GP | W | L | OTW | OTL | D | PTS | GF | AVG | GA | AVG | PCT | L10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle North Stars | 18 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 39 | 85 | 4.70 | 62 | 3.40 | 0.722 | 7-1-0-1-0 |
| Melbourne Ice | 18 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 35 | 90 | 5.00 | 52 | 2.90 | 0.648 | 4-4-0-0-0 |
| Adelaide Adrenaline | 20 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 32 | 86 | 4.30 | 75 | 3.80 | 0.533 | 3-2-0-2-0 |
| Gold Coast Blue Tongues | 18 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 69 | 3.80 | 66 | 3.70 | 0.556 | 4-4-0-1-0 |
| Sydney Bears | 19 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 30 | 55 | 2.90 | 77 | 4.10 | 0.526 | 5-4-0-1-0 |
| Canberra Knights | 18 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 68 | 3.80 | 83 | 4.60 | 0.315 | 2-6-0-2-0 |
| Sydney Ice Dogs | 19 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 55 | 2.90 | 93 | 4.90 | 0.211 | 2-7-0-1-0 |
We’ve reached that part of the season we love to hate. The skates are put away, the schedule is complete and the champion has been crowned; the 2009 AIHL season is over.
Adelaide Adrenaline, AIHL Champions
Congratulations to the Adelaide Adrenaline who played some of the best hockey this fan has seen in recent times, dominating the Melbourne Ice 6-1 in their semi-final and defeating the defending champions, Newcastle North Stars in a 3-2 overtime victory on Sunday to secure the championship.
With IHA declaring the revered Goodall Cup was going back to a state competition, the AIHL introduced a new trophy which AIHL teams will now play for. The trophy was on display during the finals and handed to Adrenaline Greg Oddy as the captain of the victorious Adelaide Adrenaline.
The Gold Coast Blue Tongues made their first ever finals appearance to the roar of a dedicated Tongues fan base. Players later expressed that the Blue Tongues fans, who numbered less than 20 out-screamed the packed North Stars crowd. Keeping even through 2 periods, the Blue Tongues lost to the Newcastle North Stars 5-3 in their semi-final matchup.
The Melbourne Ice team, who were defeated 6-1 by the Adrenaline in semi-final #1 should take away many positive things from this season, one in which saw them rebuilding with youth and inexperience. Greg Oddy and the boys did fantastic to get them to the playoffs.
Brad Smulders, AIHL MVP
Brad Smuldes was awarded the AIHL regular season MVP award. He broke the AIHL scoring record, putting up 33 goals, 43 assists for 76 points, beating the old record by 7 points.
Cass Delsar of the Adelaide Adrenaline was awarded the playoff MVP, for what we can tell, deflecting a puck and scoring the overtime game winner agains the North Stars. This has sparked a discussion as to whether scoring “that” goal is deserving of the playoff MVP. We feel Greg Oddy or Thilthorpe would have been more deserving personally.
Mike Crowhurst of Slapshot.com.au has posted that DVDs of the finals games (all 3 of them) are available for purchase via their website: http://www.slapshot.com.au. According to Mike, they had 300 people tuning in to watch the games! A huge thanks to Mike, Mischa and the rest of the Slapshot boys for making the games available to the world.
The AIHL Trophy
The AIHL off-season is a long one, stretching through til April/May next year. Over the next 7 months teams will work on securing new imports, work on training the local guys and prepare for another AIHL season. The AIHL is notorious for it’s rumour mill, so here are few to whet your appetite.
According to people in the know, the talk around the league is that there could be new teams in the AIHL next season. Nobody has been able to confirm anything as yet, however 3 names keep popping up; Melbourne, Central Coast and Brisbane. Melbourne have their new ice arena next season, making room for another team down there. The Central Coast has the Rhinos, although I find it hard to believe they would be back if the same owner is involved. Brisbane used to have the Blue Tongues, so has the ability and fan base to hold a team.
According to sources who we believe had one too many, Matt Ezzy’s days in Newcastle are over, and he could be on the move to a new team. This rumour was also popular this time last year, so take it as you will. I sincerely hope he does not move to the Gold Coast unless he welcomes the taste of humble pie, as there is zero chance fans up there will worship him as the Newcastle crowd do.
Loads of rumours of returning import players, including 1 from the Blue Tongues, 1 from Newcastle and 1 from the Adrenaline.
In less than 2 days time, old friends, trans-tasmin brothers, and fellow ANZACs will go into battle to defend their countries honor. No, i’m not talking about the Bledisloe Cup, i’m referring to the Australian representative team heading over to face off against the Kiwis in a 2-game Ice Hockey matchup!
Unlike the Bledisloe, where the All Blacks are by far the better team (go on, admit it, you know it’s true), the Ice Blacks are not so fortunate. Over the years, they have never beaten Australia, something that as a fellow kiwi, i can’t say i’m all too pleased about.
So how is this year different to any other year? Well, the Aussie team is not actually THE Aussie team, instead it’s a rep team put together from the Newcastle North Stars and Sydney Bears AIHL teams. This rep team isn’t just some mix-match either, they have some solid import players such as John Halverson and great Australian local players in Rubes, Stransky and Matt Ezzy.
That said, the Kiwis are ready. They know they’re the underdog, and they’re ok with that. One thing is certain, this coming weekend things will heat up on the Ice in Dunedin, NZ!
