2009 AIHL season

The 2009 AIHL season was the tenth season of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). It ran from 25 April 2009 until 23 August 2009, with the AIHL finals following on 29 and 30 August 2009. The Newcastle North Stars won the H Newman Reid Trophy (backdated) after finishing the regular season first in the league standings. Adelaide Adrenaline won the Goodall Cup (backdated) for the first time by defeating the Newcastle North Stars in the final.

2009 AIHL season
League	Australian Ice Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	25 April 2009 – 30 August 2009
Regular season
H Newman Reid Trophy	Newcastle North Stars (2nd title)
Season MVP	Brad Smulders (Blue Tongues)
Top scorer	Brad Smulders (76 points) (Blue Tongues)
Goodall Cup
Champions	Adelaide Adrenaline
Runners-up	Newcastle North Stars
Finals MVP	Cass Delsar (Adrenaline)

League business

The 2009 season will be reduced to seven teams after the Central Coast Rhinos dropped out due to changes made in the licensing model.[1] Two teams were renamed for the start of the season, Western Sydney Ice Dogs, dropped the Western part of the title to become the Sydney Ice Dogs[2] and the Adelaide A's have been renamed for the start of the season, playing under the new name of Adelaide Adrenaline.[1] The Sydney Ice Dogs have also been forced to relocate to Liverpool's Catholic Club's ice rink after their former home at Baulkham Hills rink withdrew from the league.

On 25–26 July there was a week's break for the Junior Men's national tournament, known as the Brown Tournament.

Regular season

Note: "SO" indicates that a game was won through a shootout. Games schedule sourced from the AIHL.[3]

Standings

Team	GP	W	SOW	SOL	L	GF	GA	GDF	PTS
Newcastle North Stars	24	17	2	0	5	122	85	+37	55
Melbourne Ice	24	15	0	3	6	113	77	+36	48
Adelaide Adrenaline	24	15	1	0	8	117	75	+42	47
Gold Coast Blue Tongues	24	13	1	3	7	108	86	+22	44
Sydney Ice Dogs	24	10	1	2	11	87	90	−3	34
Canberra Knights	24	4	1	1	18	60	120	−60	15
The Bears	24	1	3	0	20	66	140	−74	9

Qualified for the AIHL playoffs

H Newman Reid Trophy winners

Source

Scoring leaders

List shows the ten top skaters sorted by points, then goals.[4]

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	POS
Brad Smulders	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	22	33	43	76	8	F
Éric Lafrenière	Newcastle North Stars	22	27	30	57	6	F
Matthew Watkins	Melbourne Ice	22	25	29	54	8	C
Adrian Saul	Newcastle North Stars	22	14	37	51	28	F
John Halverson	Newcastle North Stars	23	31	17	48	106	D
Lliam Webster	Melbourne Ice	22	18	28	46	79	F
Steven Kaye	Newcastle North Stars	17	18	27	45	30	F
André Selander	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	20	22	18	40	93	LW
Jassi Sangha	Sydney Ice Dogs	20	17	20	37	87	LW
Vladimir Rubes	The Bears	19	16	20	36	35	F

Leading goaltenders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage.[5]

Player	Team	MIP	SOG	GA	GAA	SVS%	SO
Matthew Ezzy	Newcastle North Stars	928	645	71	3.68	0.890	0
Olivier Martin	Adelaide Adrenaline	989	604	69	3.49	0.886	0
Luke Fiveash	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	607	356	42	3.46	0.882	1
Stuart Denman	Melbourne Ice	965	496	65	3.37	0.869	1
James Herbert	Sydney Ice Dogs	871	430	63	3.62	0.853	0

Playoffs

In 2009, the Goodall Cup, celebrating 100 years of existence, had been taken back from Ice Hockey Australia (IHA) for an amateur interstate tournament and was replaced by the AIHL with the newly commissioned AIHL Champions Trophy.[6]

The 2009 playoffs was scheduled for 29 August 2009 with Championship final held on 30 August 2009.[3] Following the end of the regular season the top four teams advanced to the playoff series which was held at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in Warners Bay, Newcastle, New South Wales.[7] The series was a single game elimination with the two winning semi-finalists advancing to the Championship final. The inaugural AIHL Champions Trophy was won by the Adelaide Adrenaline who defeated the Newcastle North Stars 3–2 in overtime after the two sides finished regulation time locked at 2–2. Adelaide's Cass Delsar, was named the finals most valuable player (MVP) after scoring the overtime winner.[8]

In March 2010, the AIHL and IHA agreed to reinstate the Goodall Cup as the ultimate prize of the AIHL and backdated Adelaide Adrenaline's 2009 championship to the Goodall Cup (first title), etching the South Australian team's name on the cup and officially calling them the 2009 Goodall Cup champions.[6]

	Semifinals					Final
	1	Melbourne Ice	1
	4	Adelaide Adrenaline	6
						Adelaide Adrenaline		3
						Newcastle North Stars		2
	3	Newcastle North Stars	5
	2	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	3

All times are UTC+10:00

Semi-finals

29 August 2009 16:30

Adelaide Adrenaline

6–1 (2–0, 3–1, 1–0)

Melbourne Ice

Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, Newcastle

Game reference
	Olivier Martin	Goalies	Stuart Denman	Referee: Gordon Young Linesmen: Jason Forbes Jim McIntosh
	Mantere (Oddy) 1 – 0 Beirnes (PP) (Keane, Thilthorpe) 2 – 0 Beirnes (Delsar) 3 – 0 Mantere (Oddy, Greer) 4 – 0 4 – 1 Webster (PP) (Watkins, Seckington) Werner (PP) (Morgan, Mantere) 5 – 1 Werner (Darge, Keane) 6 – 1
	14 min	Penalties	26 min
	34	Shots	25

29 August 2009 20:00

Gold Coast Blue Tongues

3–5 (2–2, 1–1, 0–2)

Newcastle North Stars

Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, Newcastle Attendance: 1000

Game reference
	Milan Novysedlak	Goalies	Matthew Ezzy	Referee: Jeff Scott Linesmen: Darren Hardy-Hawken Rick West
	0 – 1 Kaye (PP) (Lafrenière, Saul) 0 – 2 Halverson (SH) (Saul, Starke) Ivarsson (PP) (Smulders, Selander) 1 – 2 Selander (PP) (Smulders, Upton) 2 – 2 Smulders (SH) (Ivarsson) 3 – 2 3 – 3 Morrisson (Murrell) 3 – 4 Kaye (Price, Saul) 3 – 5 Kaye (Saul, Lafrenière)
	18 min	Penalties	14 min
	29	Shots	39

Final

30 August 2009 16:00

Adelaide Adrenaline

3 – 2 (OT) (2–1, 0–1, 0–0, 1–0)

Newcastle North Stars

Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, Newcastle Attendance: 950

Game reference
	Olivier Martin	Goalies	Matthew Ezzy	Referee: Jeff Scott Linesmen: Rick West Jason Forbes
	0 – 1 Halverson (Sheffield) Morgan (PP) (Harding, Werner) 1 – 1 Oddy (PP) (Werner) 2 – 1 2 – 2 Halverson (PP) (Kaye, Saul) Delsar (Beirnes, Harding) 3 – 2
	16 min	Penalties	18 min
	34	Shots	17

References

1. "AIHL releases 2009 schedule". AIHL. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
2. "Same teams new identity". AIHL. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
3. "2009AIHL". AIHL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 October 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
4. "Scoring Leaders". Australian Ice Hockey League. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
5. "Goalie Leaders". Australian Ice Hockey League. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
6. Lambert, Peter (31 March 2010). "AIHL Welcomes Back Goodall Cup". Australian Ice Hockey League. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
7. "Australian Ice Hockey League: VIP 2009 AIHL Finals". Australian Ice Hockey League. Archived from the original on 2 October 2009. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
8. Lambert, Peter (30 August 2009). "Adelaide Adrenaline are Australian Champions". Australian Ice Hockey League. Retrieved 23 September 2018.

External links

• Official website of the AIHL