The Bears and North Stars last game ended 7-3 and with ill feeling in Newcastle. Photo by Mark Bradford.
It’s hard to feel good about one win from twelve games, and that one was in a penalty shootout. The Bears, who have moved to Penrith in Sydney’s outer west, are an “Original Three” team in the Australian Ice Hockey League. And they are a team in trouble.
It’s hard to figure out how 2007’s Australian Champions and 2008’s Minor Premiers have fallen so far behind the rest of the league, and not just figuratively, as the Bears have a 6 per cent winning percentage compared with the sixth placed team, the Canberra Knights, who have a reasonable 37 per cent.
At the other end of the league standings sandwich are the Newcastle North Stars. Newcastle are traditionally slow starters and galloping finishers, but this season they’ve been on a scorcher since the beginning, with just one loss (in Adelaide) all season, and a win percentage of 85 per cent.
The Bears and the North Stars meet on Saturday night in their second of four games in 2009.
Meanwhile, only the Adelaide Adrenaline stand out from the pack with six wins from their eight games (75 percent), but the Gold Coast Blue Tongues (57 per cent), Melbourne Ice (57 per cent), Sydney Ice Dogs (45 per cent) and Canberra Knights (37 per cent) are all in the running for a finals place.
There’s great opportunity this weekend for the Ice Dogs in Gold Coast, and the Knights travelling to Adelaide and Melbourne.
Wins for these two teams will put them right in the middle of the vegemite-and-cheese (ok, with a little Maple Syrup and Apple Pie) sandwich that is the AIHL leaderboard.
But back to Penrith. Saturday night’s game of overachievers versus underachievers, underdogs versus showdogs and number one versus number seven team is far from pre-determined.
The North Stars played a rotten game and were fortunate to beat the Ice Dogs last weekend. And in Penrith, where the Bears won the Cup in 2007 in a big upset, the setting is right for a spoiler.
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