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.
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Story courtesy of Ice Hockey Australia
