Australian Men's Ice Hockey team are a medal chance

[-VC-]

The Aussie take to the ice in New Zealand in a few days and on the back of the U/18 success they'll be looking to medal. While the U/18 Bronze was against all the odds our National team considered a strong medal chance.
They're competing in Division 2 Pool B and a high placing here will really put us on the hockey map. A gold would put us into Division 1 (in international hockey there is a World pool with Canada, Russia, Sweden etc. then Div 1 is below that).
Mexico, China and host nation New Zealand should be battling for medals along with Australia with Korea and DPR Korea not expected to challenge them. The tournament starts on Monday morning AEST. Glen Foll extends his run as the most internationally capped ice hockey player in the world...I think this is his 23rd run on the Mighty Roos. Here is our team:

1 DENMAN Stuart GK Melbourne Ice
2 HUGHES Joseph F St Scholastica Saints
3 WILSON Anthony D West Sydney Ice Dogs
4 MATUS Peter D HKm Zvolen
5 HARDING Joshua D Adelaide Avalanche
7 FOLL Glen D Adelaide Avalanche
9 WALSH Trevor F Adelaide Avalanche
10 ODDY Greg F Adelaide Avalanche
11 SEKURA Chris F West Sydney Ice Dogs
12 RUMMUKAINEN Mark D Canberra Knights
13 BRLECIC Chris F Adelaide Avalanche
14 WAND Murray F Sydney Bears
15 KEANE James F Adelaide Avalanche
16 LOVERING Tyler D Sydney Bears
17 WHITE Andrew F West Sydney Ice Dogs
18 THILTHORPE Luke F Adelaide Avalanche
19 NELSON BOND Brett F Sydney Bears
20 EZZY Matthew GK Newcastle Northstars
21 RUBES Vladimir F Sydney Bears
22 WEBSTER Liam F Melbourne Ice
23 THILTHORPE Ben F Adelaide Avalanche
24 BURKE Donald D Brisbane Blue Tongues

 

[Marns]

God, Adelaide are fairly well represented, should have no problems with chemistry you'd think. I'm gonna try finding a way to watch these games if they're televised anywhere in the world. I'd love to see our national team play.

Just imagine them going gold. Playing against some of the better teams in the world is a mouth watering prospect.

 

[-VC-]

They certainly won't be on TV or radio anywhere, especially when the tournaments in NZ. If we move up to Div 1 with some nations that take their hockey a bit more seriously there's a chance we might get an online radio stream.
The best we can do is hope there'll be live updates somewhere on the net, but I doubt that. IIHF are pretty slack for the lower divisions and I don't know of any other websites.

 

[Marns]

Yeah, fair enough. Actually, is it just me, or is the IIHF website not displaying any scores properly? It comes up with just one massive code, for every division.

 

[Power21]

If they do well, hopefully a few of the prospects get recognised and we might get a few Aussies in the NHL.

 

[Marns]

Hehe I picked up tommy powell in EHM 2005.

 

[Power21]

Hehe I picked up tommy powell in EHM 2005.

My created player in hockey games is a star lol, 100 point right wing sniper, flying the flag for Australia.

 

[-VC-]

If they do well, hopefully a few of the prospects get recognised and we might get a few Aussies in the NHL.

I would love that to happen, but it's so far from happening that it's not funny.
To make the NHL you need to play all your junior hockey in North America or Europe largely because they want to shape players. Joey Hugues (who is still playing in USA and is on our senior team) had the right idea. He went over to Canada as a 14 year old and has lived in North America ever since. He played in some good hockey leagues, but even with that never even got close to playing in the NHL. Additionally, scouts will certainly not be looking at a Div 2 tournament. NHL scouts wouldn't even be looking in Div 1. There might be some scouts for some crappy Eastern Euro or Asian leagues, but that's about it.
The closest an Australian ever got to the NHL was Jason Elliott who was a goalie in the Red Wings system in the late 90s-early new century. I believe he had one Australian and one Canadian parent so he had duel citizenship. He lived in Australia and played some hockey for a couple of years in his early teens but then went back overseas. He sat as back-up to Manny Legace for a few games when Hasek was out injured. I can't remember what season it was exactly, but it shouldn't be too hard to work out. He was probably more Canadian than Australian, but close enough for us to claim him for sure.

 

[-VC-]

The guys got their campaign off to a good start with a 5-1 victory over DPR Korea. We outshot them 46-18 and apparently were all over them the whole game, except the last period when we were penalty killing a lot.
In other results China defeated Mexico 4-1 and Korea thumped New Zealand 8-1. Looks like I was wrong about both Korea and New Zealand.
We play New Zealand this afternoon, but it doesn't look like there are live updates anywhere online, which is a real pity. I'm guessing the game result will pop up on the IIHF site later tonight.

 

[-VC-]

The boys beat the Kiwis 6-2. We outshot them 74-14. Apparently NZ had four defenders around the net so it was difficult to penetrate for quality shots. Joey Hughes led the team with 14 shots, but for defender Anthony Wilson to get 11 shots on net indicates that this was the case.
They have a rest day today and take on Korea tomorrow. The game against Korea is very important because they're actually shaping up to be quite strong. In their two games they've beaten NZ 8-1 and Mexico 15-2.

 

[Marns]

Thanks for the update, VC.

 

[-VC-]

Apparently Australia have lost 4-2 to Korea. The report isn't up on the IIHF website, but I heard from a friend.
A win would've assured us a medal but we should be able to beat Mexico tomorrow for that medal. Unfortunately, it really sets us back in our quest for gold because Korea still haven't lost.
What we need is for China to beat Korea and for us to beat China. That way it would come down to a three way tie and they would look at head to head records...

 

[-VC-]

Holy crap, it happened!
Not only did we beat Mexico 9-2 as expected (thus clinching a Bronze) but China beat Korea, which is the result we needed. Unfortunately it was a 6-3 game, which gives China the upper hand. If we beat Korea it will be a three way tie for first spot and as we know with our Youth team it then goes down to head to head contests.
If we do beat China then us, Korea and China will be on one win each in head to head so it will come down to goals differential in those head to head contests.
Korea have finished with those teams and have a -1 goals differential.
Australia currently have a -2 goals differential (after losing 4-2 to Korea).
China currently have a +3 goals differential (after today's win against Korea).

Here's the scenario:
- A loss, tie or one goal win = Bronze
- A two goal win = Silver
- A three goal or more win = Gold

Good luck Australia! Imagine that...a Division Two Gold and promotion to Division 1.

 

[-VC-]

Our national team narrowly missed their chance to take gold after playing out a 5-5 tie with China.
It seemed like a high tempo game with plenty of shots. The Australian's outshot the Chinese 44-40. It was goal for goal all game with the lead changing five times but never getting larger than one.
There was also a whole heap of penalties with China taking 34 PIMs and Australia 48 (though 20 minutes of Australia PIMs were from 10 minute misconducts). The Aussies score four of their five goals on the power play and China scored two with the extra man.
With nine minutes we scored to go up 5-4 and would've been attacking to move ourselves up the medals. From that point, every goal we scored would advance us up the medal table. However, the Chinese would not relent because it would be to their own detriment.
Bad luck to the boys. Division 2 is not usually such an even affair but it seems as though there were three top quality and equally matched teams at this tournament.
So China ended up with gold, Korea with Silver and Australia Bronze. Well done on the medal. Even though we were expected to medal it's always a proud moment when we do so.