North Stars win AIHL Championship

The Newcastle North Stars have defeated the Western Sydney Ice Dogs 4-1 at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium to win their 4th national championship in 6 years. The six consecutive Goodall Cup Final appearances and the four championships from those six appearances are both records unequalled by any other team in Australia.

The North Stars overcame a horror start to the season where they languished at the bottom few places of the table but survived injury and the poor start to finish the season with a club record 53 points.

The Sydney Bears finished the season in first place with 61 points, but were unable to keep pace with the offence of the Newcastle team, behind 2-0 at the end of the first period and making ground late in the game to close the gap to 7-5. The Ice Dogs won their way through to the Goodall Cup Final with a thrilling semi final on Saturday, breaking the 1-1 deadlock with the Melbourne Ice in overtime to win 2-1

Top prospect for the Ice Dogs going into the final were top scorers Mitch Strang, Frank Angyal and Tyler Sheddon. The Ice Dogs finished the season in 2nd place, just one point ahead of 4th placed Newcastle and on equal points with rivals Melbourne. more>>

Victoria Undefeated in IHA’s 2008 National Ginsberg 13 & Under Championship

Before a packed house of screaming fans, player size differential meant nothing when Victoria’s 13 & Under Ginsberg Squad faced off against power house New South Wales in IHA’s 2008 National 13 & Under Ginsberg Championship final Gold Medal game.

Lukas Kemppainen struck early in the game when he found himself all alone at the corner of the net and slid the puck under New South Wales goaltender Stafan Mirus for Victoria’s first goal. After three goal posts, Kevin Madden replied for New South Wales with 2:13 left in the first period to tie the score 1 - 1.

With 2:55 remaining in a closely contested second period, Caleb Butler gave Victoria the lead 2 – 1 with an end-to-end rush and firing the puck over Mirus’ right shoulder. New South Wales failed to counter through out the second despite a number of attacks on Victoria’s netminder Fraser Ohlson.

At 11:51 of the third Kevin Madden scored his second of the game to tie the game 2 – 2. Three minutes later Madden scored his third to give New South Wales a 3 – 2 lead and momentum for what was believed to be enough for a Gold Medal win. However, the usual Victorian persistence paid off when Corey Stringer found the net unassisted with 6:05 remaining to even the score. Two minutes later, Caleb Butler struck again, unleashing a drive to the net and beating Mirus to the top shelf giving Victoria a 4 – 3 lead. Immediately after the face off, New South Wales massed a pressing attack on Ohlson causing Victoria to ice the puck with less than a minute remaining. New South Wales, taking advantage of the face off in Victoria’s end, pulled Mirus for the extra attacker. With New South Wales pressing, Kemppainen found the puck over Victoria’s blue line and wasted no time firing it into an empty net, giving Victoria a 5 – 3 win and Gold Medal honours for 2008.

In the Bronze Medal game South Australia defeated Western Australia 4 – 0 with goals from Kayne Fedor, Keegan Stone, Josephine Otto and Kendric McCarrol. Matt Wilson and Nathan Shigrov equally shared the South Australia’s net duties and the shutout.

Although Western Australia was unable to record a win at the Championship, it was not due to lack of effort. It was largely due to a rink closure at the end of the 2007 season causing reduced player numbers and ice times for trainings. The construction of a new modern ice facility is currently underway and will see the return of Western Australia in top form at all levels for years to come.

For stats and photos, click here.