The Roar » Ice Pete

Mustangs’ play exciting style of ice hockey

Ice Pete — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:59:57 +0000

The Australian Ice Hockey League’s latest addition, the Mustangs, tagged league heavyweights Adelaide Adrenaline not once but twice last weekend on home ice at Melbourne’s Medibank Icehouse.

The Mustangs were formed on the premise that Victoria’s youth weren’t getting enough opportunities with a single AIHL team, the Melbourne Ice.

It’s a question often chewed over by sports administrators, of whether it’s better to provide more opportunity to upcoming players at the expense of quality, or to set a high standard at the expense of opportunity.

The very significant proportion of under-18 players on the Mustangs can give punters the impression that the Mustangs are under-cooked. Last weekend’s results were a pretty damned good reason to think again.

The author was one such doubter, thinking the Mustangs mostly like to finish the season in 6th or 7th place in a field of 8 teams, with positions 5 or 8 also possibilities. He may need to revise that judgement to a couple of places north.

Sure, the Adrenaline still don’t have their complete side, and have some players in recovery or injured, but they’re probably at 80 to 90 percent strength, not 50.

Following their 5-2 and 5-3 wins over last year’s finalists, the Mustangs have to be considered for a top-four finish and a crack at the 2011 finals in their debut season.

‘One swallow does not a summer make’ is certainly true in the AIHL, where early season results can vary wildly, but after wins versus the Bears and Adrenaline, and the third-best win percentage in the league, all teams must take them seriously.

Melbourne’s original team, the Ice, and a newly-deep Newcastle North Stars are both undefeated so far this season, but under them there are six places wide open. The Mustangs, though, are chiselling out a foothold in third.

All AIHL teams should take heed – underestimate these kids at your own peril!

Roaring Hot

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Article link: Mustangs’ play exciting style of ice hockey. Written by Ice Pete, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

Australian Ice Hockey League: Rd. 1 review

Ice Pete — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:40:59 +0000

The crowd had barely dispersed from Melbourne’s World Championships on the previous Sunday night before the AIHL launched the season with a Thursday night debut for the new Mustangs team versus their stable-mates, the Melbourne Ice. The 2011 AIHL season was under way, with the opener in Melbourne’s Docklands, followed by Adelaide Adrenaline and the [...]

Article link: Australian Ice Hockey League: Rd. 1 review. Written by Ice Pete, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

Ice hockey enters Australian minorstream

Ice Pete — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:18:03 +0000

Ice hockey in Australia has been enjoying a slow but steady progression into the world of Australian sports over the past few years. In the past two weeks, the Australian men and U18 boys teams have both won gold medals in their World Championship Divisions, and will be promoted. In February, our women’s team took [...]

Article link: Ice hockey enters Australian minorstream. Written by Ice Pete, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

Australian Ice Hockey League turns ten this year

Ice Pete — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:52:25 +0000

The Australian Ice Hockey League celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2010, entering its second decade since launching in 2000. Starting from a modest three teams from Canberra, Sydney and Adelaide, the league went to six teams in 2002 and then to eight teams in 2005. Since 2005, the only change is NSW Central Coast Rhinos’ [...]

Article link: Australian Ice Hockey League turns ten this year. Written by Ice Pete, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

Canada vs USA gold medal game may be greatest ever

Ice Pete — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:32:59 +0000

Canada vs. USA for gold at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, in men’s (and women’s ) ice hockey. The Olympic and ice hockey communities couldn’t have asked for a better final. The Gold Medal game today will be special, because it may be the greatest game of this generation, and perhaps of all time. 2002′s Salt [...]

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Can Australian hockey make it back to the Winter Olympics?

Ice Pete — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:10:58 +0000

To be fair, Australia playing ice hockey in the Winter Olympics isn’t a long way away – it’s a long long way away. Still, not as long as many Aussies might think. The shiny new twin-rink facility in Docklands, Melbourne is a big step forward on a long path. It’s been dubbed the “Icehouse”, and [...]

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Olympic ice hockey to offer more miracles

Ice Pete — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:52:37 +0000

The word “miracle” in ice hockey is used to refer to the USA’s two biggest upsets in the sport — in the 1960 and 1980 Winter Olympics, both on US ice. Another miracle happened on “Super Sunday” when the underdog Team USA shook down the towering powerhouse of Team Canada, decked with superstars from end [...]

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Glory waits for Ice Hockey champions

Ice Pete — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:25:07 +0000

On Saturday evening in New South Wales’ Warners Bay, the top four teams in the Australian Ice Hockey League will play their part in two semi finals to determine who gets to play for the title of national champions and the shiny new AIHL Champions Trophy. Finishing the season in first place, the Newcastle North [...]

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New Zealand to ambush Australia in Ice Hockey

Ice Pete — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:25:26 +0000

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Time for new traditions in Ice Hockey

Ice Pete — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:08:50 +0000

For seven seasons the Goodall Cup has been the ultimate prize for the Australian Ice Hockey League, Australia’s ancient ice hockey talisman has been handed back to Ice Hockey Australia for the states to fight over in its centenary year. IHA will be hosting an event celebrating the cup’s centenary in Adelaide come October, with [...]

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Ice Hockey mulls expansion East and West

Ice Pete — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:15:47 +0000

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Australian Ice Hockey finale announced

Ice Pete — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:08:48 +0000

Photo by Mark Bradford: Fully-glassed Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in the Newcastle area will host the 2009 finals.

Sun Tzu said to take the contested ground to control the battle. And it’s in the contested ground where all the action will happen with just five rounds remaining in the 2009 AIHL regular season.

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Ice Pete — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:14:02 +0000

Fighting in ice hockey is undoubtedly the most controversial part of the sport, and often debated. But it’s also the most misunderstood. Just as sports shorts only ever show car crashes in motor racing, it’s usually only the fights that gets a producers notice when ice hockey gets its five seconds of news covererage in [...]

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Minor Premiership an ice hockey curse

Ice Pete — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:04:33 +0000

Photo by Mark Bradford: Jassi Sangha and Matt Price go toe-to-toe last weekend in the Australian Ice Hockey League

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Ice Pete — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:25:59 +0000

For 100 years, New South Wales has battled Victoria for the mantle of being the Aussie heartbeat of hockey, but that heartbeat shows signs of slowing. New South Wales and Victoria first met in 1909 and played for a cup donated by John Goodall, his cup now the third oldest national cup in the world [...]

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The Bears struggle as the Ice Hockey season heats up

Ice Pete — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:54:38 +0000

The Bears and North Stars last game ended 7-3 and with ill feeling in Newcastle. Photo by Mark Bradford.

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Australia’s Stanley Cup

Ice Pete — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:15:08 +0000

One of the most anticipated games in ice hockey will be played in Detroit this weekend when the Kings of the old NHL, the Red Wings, defend their Stanley Cup title versus the Princes of the new NHL. The entire Stanley Cup Finals series consists of four rounds of ‘best of seven’, where an original [...]

Article link: Australia’s Stanley Cup. Written by Ice Pete, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

Ice Hockey season reaching its hard centre

Ice Pete — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:24:45 +0000

Australian ice hockey. Photo by Frank Kutsche

The seven Australian Ice Hockey League teams have sucked the chocolate coating off the lollies and now they’ll find if they’ve selected a gooey caramel centre or a rock-hard gumball.

Australia to play two ice hockey Tests against New Zealand

Ice Pete — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:12:17 +0000

The Australian Ice Hockey League, Winter Games New Zealand, and the two nations’ national ice hockey federations have come to an agreement for Australia to play two ice hockey “Tests” as a Winter Games highlight event in August. The two matches will be played on consecutive nights in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island on [...]

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Aussie Ice Hockey shoots out

Ice Pete — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:31:42 +0000

Newcastle's Ben Morrison and Gold Coast Captain Ross Howell exchange blows in an Australian Ice Hockey match. Photo by Mark Bradford

Four weeks into the 2009 Australian Ice Hockey League and it’s already a shoot out.

Equality amongst ice hockey clubs pleases crowds

Ice Pete — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:12:55 +0000

Air Canada Centre it's not, but the Phillip Ice Arena is a lot of fun! Photo by Mark Bradford

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Ice hockey has a place on Australian rinks

Ice Pete — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:54:43 +0000

Opening night in Newcastle April 26th 09. Newcastle North Stars came back from 3-0 down to beat the Sydney Ice Dogs 5-3. Photo by Mark Bradford

For many Australians, it would seem that ice hockey has just crawled out from under a rock. But after 101 years of being played in Australia, the sport would beg to differ.