IIHF – Australian league turns 25

The Goodall Cup is the third oldest hockey championship trophy in the world. Only the Stanley Cup (1893) and the Allan Cup (1909) are older than Australia’s national championship trophy, first awarded to New South Wales in 1911.

 

Since 2000, the trophy has been handed out to the winner of the new Australian Ice Hockey League, which is now celebrating 25 years and thriving as the main national league Down Under. There are ten teams, two in Sydney (Bears and Ice Dogs) and two in Melbourne (Ice and Mustangs) along with the Newcastle Northstars, Perth Thunder, Canberra Brave, Central Coast Rhinos, Adelaide Adrenaline, and Brisbane Lightning. This season, however, the two Sydney teams are inactive because of extensive renovations being done to the Macquarie Ice Rink, which the teams share.

 

In the AIHL’s first season, there were but three teams—Adelaide Avalanche, Canberra Knights, and Sydney Bears (which is the only original team from 2000 still playing). The top two played a one-game final to determine the league champion. Two years later, the league doubled in size, adding the Melbourne Ice, Newcastle North Stars (which changed its spelling to Northstars in 2002), and West Sydney Ice Dogs.

 

The mid-aughts brought more teams and big names. In 2005, the Avalanche signed former NHLer Steve McKenna, and a year later, the Brisbane Blue Tongues brought in Rob Zamuner, a longtime NHLer who played for Canada at the 1998 Olympics alongside Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros. Mel Angelstad, Tyrone Garner, and Gaetan Royer followed, as Australia became a viable option for players whose NHL days had come and gone but who still wanted to play at a decent level.

 

The year 2012 was another watershed moment for hockey in Australia. For the first time, the AIHL created two conferences, Bauer and Easton, and a Trans-Tasman Champions League tournament took place involving teams from both Australia and New Zealand. Like everywhere around the world, COVID-19 caused a major disruption to the league, which didn’t operate in 2020 or 2021. But when it returned, it did so with purpose. Foer the first time, games were now a regulation 60 minutes (previously they had been 45 minutes (2000-12) and 50 minutes (periods of 15, 15, and 20 minutes)), and the league signed several new broadcasting deals both at home and abroad.

Teams…