Ice Hockey season reaching its hard centre

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.

What was effectively a half-round last weekend is chased up with a sledge-hammer five-game round, with three teams desperate to turn their shaky starts around facing stiff opposition.

The Gold Coast Blue Tongues had unprecedented expectations this season, even for a team known for setting lofty goals.

Their star line of import players has been effective, but a thinning of their ranks and forgoing the extra punch of an import goalie has left them vulnerable.

The Blue Tongues aren’t doing too badly, winning 46 percent of possible competition points, but they face a huge test when they host the red-hot Adelaide Adrenaline in a double-header weekend at Bundall rink.

The Adrenaline club was formed after Adelaide’s former team, the Avalanche, folded due to financial problems in 2008. Now boasting deep lines of locals and top-shelf imports under new leadership, the Adrenaline find themselves perfect with five outright wins from five games played.

Also on the road this weekend and desperate for wins is the Melbourne Ice. Although the Canberra Knights sit below the Ice with a 33 percent win ratio (Melbourne’s is 38 percent), the Knights are never easy to beat in their noisy, bustling rink.

Once the Ice faces Canberra on Saturday, they hit the Hume to meet third-placed Sydney Ice Dogs on Sunday evening, who are playing better than their 56 percent would indicate.

Finally, there is the top versus bottom teams game when the Bears drive up the F3 from Penrith to Newcastle to play the North Stars on Saturday.

The Bears are having a regrettable start to their season with just an 8 percent winning percentage versus Newcastle’s 81 percent. But the first team to take the Bears lightly will find themselves very red-faced.

The North Stars have played only three of their nine games at home this season so far and will want to please their crowd after a month on the road.

The Bears must win to keep their season alive. It’s as simple as that.