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.
On the 29th and 30th of August, the top-four finishing teams will be duking it out at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in the Newcastle/Lake Macquarie area, for the title of Australian Champions and for possession for one year of the century-old Goodall Cup.
From the seven teams in the league, only one team is mathematically assured of a finals place at this time. Likewise, only one team is completely without possibility of qualifying.
The Canberra Knights, however, are effectively eliminated as their entry would require two of the four teams above them to fail to reach their maximum 35 points.
The Bears are the unfortunate early souls to miss out this season, a great disappointment since this team won the Championship in 2007 and the Minor Premiership in 2008.
The Newcastle North Stars are the team already locked in, fortuitous as they are the hosts for the second season running. The fully-glassed ice area in Newcastle is valued too much to pass up to another rink with netting.
The North Stars will have to shake the ‘curse’ should they take the Minor Premiership for 2009, no team has gone on to win the lot.
The contested ground lies between the Adelaide Adrenaline, Gold Coast Blue Tongues, Melbourne Ice and the Sydney Ice Dogs. These four teams are the teams to battle for the final three finals places in Newcastle, and it is a close-run finish.
Three of the teams are equal on 27 points.
However, Sydney is placed most precariously with only six games remaining and a tough run to the line. Melbourne Ice too have a tough run ahead of them from their remaining eight games, while Adelaide has 10 games remaining with half of those against the two bottom teams.
The Gold Coast Blue Tongues have a five point lead on the others with 32 points, but with only six games remaining are within reach of the three teams below them.
One only has to wait for this weekend for some clarity, with the Melbourne Ice playing two double-point games, one of them against the Ice Dogs.
The Blue Tongues will travel to Adelaide for a double-header against the Adrenaline, the other critical match-up of this weekend.
The Bears will host the Canberra Knights on Sunday night to finalise the games for July until the Australian Ice Hockey League resumes on the 1st of August.
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