Adelaide Adrenaline
AIHL release 2010 Schedule
The Australian Ice Hockey League today released the complete schedule of regular season games for the 2010 season, the league’s 10th year of operation. The season, comprising 84 games, begins Saturday April 24th and concludes Sunday August 22nd. Each of the league’s 7 clubs will play 24 games, 12 at home and 12 on the road.
2009 AIHL Champions Adelaide will kick off their season on Saturday May 2nd when they host the West Sydney Ice Dogs.
The AIHL is expected to capture the imagination of many Australian’s with interest in winter sports increasing, courtesy of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver starting next month, and also the opening of Australia’s world class and first dual ice arena in Docklands, Melbourne
The entire 2010 AIHL Regualr Season Schedule is available for viewing at www.theaihl.com
Adrenaline announce Mike Gainer as Head Coach
The Adelaide Adrenaline are pleased to announce they have secured Mike Gainer as Head Coach for the 2010 Season. Born in Anchorage, Alaska USA, Mike comes from a strong hockey background as a player, referee and coach.
After arriving in Adelaide in 1997, Mike played an integral part in South Australia’s Goodall Cup winning team, and was also a member of the inaugural Adelaide Avalanche squad.
With twenty years of officiating experience, Mike was invited as a referee to attend a select U/25 officials camp held by USA Hockey in 1994. He finished in the top two of the class. In 2008 he was selected to officiate at the 2008 IIHF World Championships in Newcastle, AU.
Despite his success as a player and official over the past few years, Mike believe’s that coaching is his real talent. “I believe that my experience in these hockey roles, along with my experience in the Marine Corps, as a youth worker and now a firefighter has given me a broad base to become a good coach. This, along with the fact I was not that talented player made me focus on a lot of strategy, technique and hard work,” said Gainer.
One of Gainer’s strength in the past has been taking teams from their inception, or from the cellar to a championship. Back home he resurrected the Chilkoot Hockey Club to multiple City Championships. Here in Adelaide he took the Falcons A-Grade club from perennial wooden spoons to successive championships.
Despite this success however, Gainer knows he is stepping into unfamiliar waters in his role with the Adelaide Adrenaline. “This is the first time I have taken over as head coach of a team in such great shape. The Adrenaline are defending AIHL Champions, they are loaded with great talent (7 players have been invited to the 2010 National Team), and are in the process of signing some very high profile import recruits,” he said.
“The pressure is on me and there is no reason why we should not repeat, even though the competition is getting stronger and stronger. Newcastle is always up there and will be stewing over last years OT championship loss, and Melbourne is going to benefit from their new facilities at Docklands,” said Gainer.
With this in mind, the Adrenaline have wasted no time in kicking off their pre-season training in preperation for the 2010 season. The majority of the squad have already bagan their off-ice, with strength, agility and conditioning the major focus. All the players will meet February 6th for their official off-ice fitness testing. “There are a few exercises and techniques I picked up while serving in the Marine Corps. There is no reason why we will not be the fittest team in the league,” said Gainer.
The teams first on-ice session of the year is scheduled for January 31st.
South Australia 2009 Centenary Goodall Cup Champions
The 2009 Centenary Goodall Cup Championships opend with the host state South Australia losing a close encounter against arch rivals Team Victoria with a score of 3-2. Josh Harding and Glen Foll scored one each for S.A. Victoria maintaned pace against Western Australia the following morning, winning their second game of the championships 2-1.
In the third game South Australia nearly lost the game after leading Western Australia 5-2 ealry in the third period. After W.A narrowed the gap to 5-4, S.A scored would seal the game with an empty net goal late in the game. Team captain Greg Oddy and Ben Thilthorpe led the charge with two goals each. Cass Delsar and Luke Thilthorpe notched singles.
In the second round it was S.A dominating Victoria with a resonding 4-0 defeat behind a hatrick perfomance from Captain Greg Oddy. Cass Delsar notched the teams fourth in the dying minutes of the game. The game would prove to be the death kell for Victoria late in the Championships.
If W.A was going to have any hope of playing in the Gold Medal Game, game 5 needed to be the turning point. Behind an outstanding goaltender performance, W.A defeated Victoria 4-2. Game 6 was another must win for W.A for entry into the gold medal game, with Vicotria’s medal hopes now in the hand of S.A. W.A scored a surprising three unanswered goals to take a 3-0 lead min way through the first period. S.A’s Nick Clark would finally put the home side on the board and narrow the lead to two late in the first. W.A would increase their lead to 4-1 early in the second before S.A’s Sean Greer narrowed the gap to two. Another W.A goal however handed them a 5-2 lead. A closely fough end-to-end third priod had S.A’s Corey Smith scored S.A’s third goal of the game. This wasn’tenough though with W.A scoring once more for a 6-3 win and more importantly a place in the gold medal game.
With a capacity crowd and expectations of a fast paced game, S.A hit the ice with S.A captain Greg Oddy scoring the first goal of the game. In the second it was Cass Delsar extending S.A’s lead to 2-0 before W.A finally notched their first goal midway through the final period. With S.A dominating, S.A’s Greg Oddy found the mark for the home side to hand them a well deserved 3-1 win and score the Centenary Goodall Cup Championships for 2009.
Click here for tournament statistics
Story courtesy of Ice Hockey Australia
Adelaide Adrenaline Ticker-Tape Parade - watch it here
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