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 Mustangs, swapping places in a New South Wales trip to visit the Sydney Bears (Penrith) and the Newcastle North Stars (Warners Bay).
Emotions were boiling over, even before the two teams had ever played against each other in Melbourne.
The nine-season Ice have an established presence in Melbourne that has only really bloomed in the past 12 months with the opening of the new Olympic facility in Docklands, the Medibank Icehouse.
Before the rink even opened however, they found themselves competing for with a team, that at that stage didn’t even exist.
There have been claims of foul play from both sides, so it’s no surprise that the season-opener and first-ever local derby game between the two Docklands teams became acrimonious.
Veteran referee Jeff Scott became overwhelmed, handing out nearly 140 minutes of penalties during the game.
On the scoreboard, the result was what most imagined it would be; a 8-4 victory for last year’s champions against this year’s debutants.
Over the weekend, the Mustangs travelled to NSW to play the Bears and North Stars, alternating places with the 2009 champions the Adelaide Adrenaline.
The Bears were in dire straights, missing more than half of their roster, gifting the Mustangs their first-ever win in a canter, 6-1.
Things were much tighter in Newcastle, with the North Stars showing a jet-lagged but full roster versus the Adrenaline’s depleted line-up, though not as seriously as the Bears. The North Stars opened their season with a 7-3 win.
On Sunday, the Mustangs put the fear of an embarrassment into the North Stars, leading them twice.
Tired and unorganised, the North Stars were on the ropes, but ground their way out in the third to win 7-6.
In Penrith, the Bears similarly put a scare into the Adrenaline.
A last-minute goal by Aussie coach and retiree-in-waiting, Vlad Rubes, proved he’s still got it, and sent the Adrenaline into shootout to fight for the extra competition point.
The Adrenaline easily won the shootout, earning two points and leaving the Bears with just the one.
The second round of the AIHL season will begin on “Easter Saturday” when the Ice Dogs open their season against the Melbourne Ice and the North Stars trek to ACT to start the Canberra Knight’s season.
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