Australian Men's Ice Hockey Team

Bronze Medal - Final Entry

2006-04-17T18:09:00.000-12:00

I thought it would be worth while putting a closing entry on this year’s blog.

I would first like to thank Rowan and HockeyPulse.com for taking this initiative within Australian Ice Hockey. I would have liked to do a bit more but there was internet availability issues etc. I would also like to thank those who read my entries - from what I have been told it was still pretty informative for those who tuned in. Next time we can do a little more.

The 2006 NST was a pleasure to be apart of. There was 100% commitment from all involved and once again I am proud to be representing Australia. We gave it our all and took away a bronze medal; in years gone by this would have been a very good result. In 2006, this team set the goal of gaining promotion and nothing else would do. I guess that is why we are disappointed by the result – certainly not by our effort. My heart felt thanks goes to the coaching and support staff lead by Rob Barnes.

I know there are a few players that have wore the green and gold for the last time, I will leave it up to them to make the announcements. What I can say is that the 8 world championships I have now played in have been the highlight of my ice hockey career. I have played with the greatest bunch of guys, have stories that could fill 5 books and met some great people along the way. I am positive we will continue to see a very strong National Team for years to come – until then please support your local AIHL team!

All the very best,

Tyler

AUS 9 - MEX 2, looking ahead

2006-04-09T10:23:00.000-12:00

Sorry for the delay in my update. The internetis down at the team hotel.
Everything went to plan vs Mexico. Initially we had some troubles putting the puck in the net but we did well in the 2nd and 3rd capitalising on our oportunities. We were able to use all 4 lines so most of the guys felt pretty fresh afterwards.
Murry Wand was our man of the match.

Yesterday was a day off for all the teams. We had a recovery session in the pool and then went sightseeing to Mt Eden and the city of Auckland. It was a good day and a chance to get out of the hotel for a while.
Today's game vs China is the biggest game of my international career. From my point of view, our only priority is winning the game. The goal differential can't be a factor in our preparation. We need to win, end of story.
To get the gold we have to win by 3 goals. We know we can do it. 2 years ago we beat them 6-3 and were up 5-1 at one stage. It is in our reach!

AUS 2 - Korea 4

2006-04-06T17:48:00.000-12:00

It was a very tough day for us, losing 4-2 to our rival Korea. The mood of the boys is one of huge disappointment. There was not much talking on the bus on the way home; I guess we are all coming to grips with the loss. We now need to look forward at the remaining 2 games. Unfortunately, winning the gold medal is slightly out of our hands. We need China to beat Korea tomorrow and, of course we need to win our next 2 games and finish with 4 wins.

Korea got the start we wanted scoring 3 “soft” goals in the first period. By soft I mean they came off of fortunate bounces and deflections. For the remainder of the game we out worked and out played them. We fought through their yapping, diving and stick work – and there was plenty of all of it - to battle back to 3-2.

With just over 2 mins to go Korea took a penalty for too many men on the ice and we pulled the goalie to go on the power play 6 men to 4. Again, bounces did not go our way and they scored an open net goal to finish the scoring 4-2. Andrew White was our player of the game – well done mate.

Once again there was great support from our Aussie fans. We really appreciate your support - Thank You!

Tonight we will have a team dinner at 6pm and get ready for tomorrow’s game vs Mexico at 12pm local time.

AUS 6 - NZ 2

2006-04-05T07:10:00.000-12:00

What a game last night. It really was a great trans-tasman battle. We knew the "Ice Blacks" would come out firing. For them this was their tournament. I think that if they beat us but lost every other game they would feel it was a successful tournament. We knew this and were ready.

It was a packed house, you could not have fit another soul in the arena. The contingent of Aussie fans were(and have been) great. It was such a lift to take the ice to a huge cheer. When NZ took the ice it was deafening. They got some great support. The crowd was even more fired up after the NZ team did the traditional Haka on the ice. We all lined up right on the red line and faced up to their challenge. It was on.

We dominated from the outset. The first period saw us in with the lead but outshooting the NZ team something like 36-4. I was amazed at how little pressure they put on us. As a d-man it was like shooting practice. They had a system where 4 of them would collapse around the net and and 1 would chase the puck. It made it very difficult for us to penetrate the crease and prime scoring areas.

The second period was much of the same. It seemed like we were short handed a fair bit though. This was mainly due to the fact our forecheck was so intense. I would say they the play was in their end over 90% of the game. The second period had us outshooting them something like 26-4.

The third period we continued to dominate. Again they barely touched the puck and when they did it was usually to ice it. They did have a few chances on the power play and managed to score 2 goals on us. Stu Denman got the start in net and played a very solid game. It must have been tough for him to keep his concentration - he made at least 2 "highlight reel" saves. Well done Stuey. The final shots on net ended up 90-15. Though we didn't blow them away on the final scoreboard the coaching staff was really happy with our tempo, forecheck and for the most part our discipline.

Joey Hughes got our man of the match and Glen Foll was presented with a special award from the IIHF for years of service at the World Championships. I will hook up an interview with Glen later in the week. Peter Matus did not dress as he is suffering from a corked thigh and is day to day.

Today we have a day off from games. We are on the ice later this morning and have a civic reception to attend tonight. Tomorrow is Korea - the first of the medal deciding games. I can't wait!

AUS 5 - DPRK 1

2006-04-02T17:09:00.000-12:00

We started well in our first game of the tournament with a convincing 5-1 win over North Korea. They were never really in the game at any point despite being on the powerplay most of the 3rd period.

There were a lot of good signs from us. The coaching staff said it was a good 1st game and our team defense was solid. There are always things we can improve on though - as a team we felt we took the foot off the pedal a little in the second half of the game. We also took quite a few penalties - as always we need to adjust to the referees ASAP. The sooner the better.

Brett Nelson-Bond had our player of the game with 2 nice goals. All around it was a good effort.

Tonight we just had a cool down swim and dinner at 6pm. From there it is refocusing on tomorrow's game with NZ at 7pm. We have a per game skate at 7.30am to work out any kinks but there were no major injuries to report.

So it is 1 down 4 to go. We took a good step today beating a country we had never beaten before. We were happy with the win but not content. We are expecting a much more physical game tomorrow night. I'll write in when I can.

National Team arrives in New Zealand

2006-04-01T16:29:00.000-12:00

Hello from a rainy and cold Auckland, New Zealand. We arrived last night after a long day of travel about an hour and a half late from our scheduled arrival time. All the other teams have arrived and around the hotel there are groups of opposition eyeing each other off - the fun is beginning.

This morning started with a 7.30am skate and we were flying. Team China were there to watch - i'm sure they were thinking that we looked good! We went through the final prep of breakouts, forecheck and power plays as it will be the last skate prior to our tournament opener vs North Korea tomorrow at mid day. The line up (in no particular order)to face the North Koreans is as follows:
Walsh - Oddy - Sekura - Lovering - L. Thilthorpe
Wand - Rubes - B Thilthorpe - Wilson - White
Brelecic - Nelson-Bond - Keane - Foll
Hughes - Webster - Matus - Harding - Rummo
From what I understand Australia has never beat North Korea so we know we will be in for a big one.
I will try and update a score asap and a game report will follow. IIHF.com may have live updates.

Training Camp – Day 7

2006-03-31T13:18:00.000-12:00

It has been a great week for us. I feel we have followed the coaching staff's plan and are ready to get on that airplane tomorrow and compete for the gold medal.

Last night we had a very strong performance against an under strength “best of the rest” team winning by 7 goals. The real positive to come out the game is that our defensive zone was solid. We also started to put into action the team tactics we worked on throughout the week. There were no major injuries however, Don Burke is day to day with a lower back strain and Josh Harding needed a few stitches after taking a puck to the mouth. Both will be ready to go by Monday.

So that is it from training camp 2006. We are off to NZ tomorrow morning, we are ready and are committed to represent Australia as best as we possibly can.

Training Camp Day 5

2006-03-29T16:10:00.001-12:00

Things are going well here in Newcastle. We have been training twice a day and played a decent game last night, ending in a 5 - 5 draw.

The morning skates have been fast paced, working on tempo and speed. The night traings have been more focussed on systems. We feel we are progressing every day and are on track to be at our best in New Zealand.

GAME vs IMPORTS
Last night we had our first "live" test vs a group of imports and some Newcastle Northstars. It was a decent crowd and the game was played hard with some great hits and goals.

In the first period we seemed to have a fair bit of nerves getting in the way but were able to jump out to a 2 goal lead.

Between periods the line of Liam,Peter and Jordan Landry (filling in for Joey Hughes during the camp) along with Mark and Josh switched teams. This gave the import team some more fire power and the imports took the lead.

In the third we got that line back and gave the imports the line of Vlad, Murray, Ben, Willo and Andrew. The game went back and forth with neither team able to break the deadlock.

There were some very good efforts from both teams but the standout would have been Matt Ezzy who played for the import team and faced 50+ shots. The coaching staff was hapy with the effort and we will continue to work on our systems over the next few days. After the game the arena staff put on a great dinner and gave us the chance to have a bit of a team bonding session.

We are looking forward to Thursday nights re-match.

There were no injuries to report however Stu Denman has had to temporarily leave the team for family reasons and will be meeting us in Auckland.

2006 Australian Men's Ice Hockey Team Training Camp Day 1 25 March

2006-03-25T15:10:00.000-12:00

It was a great start to our World Championship run with all but two team members assembling in Newcastle this afternoon. Vlad Rubes, who just returned from coaching the Aussie under 18 team, will be joining us tomorrow and Joey Hughes will be meeting the team in New Zealand as is currently playing in the USA.

Prior to taking the ice Coach Rob Barnes sat down with us and went through the "rules of the road" and set the tone for the weeks ahead. There were two strong messages to come out
- tempo will be the key to our success, we want to take away time and space from our opposition.
- rest and recovery are crucial during these two weeks. As a team we need to ensure we are doing the right things so we are fresh right through to the final buzzer of every game.

On the ice the team was looking good. The training session was a mixture of flow drills and some work within the lines.

The team:
Ben Thilthorpe, Adelaide Avalanche
Brett Nelson-Bond, Sydney Bears
Chris Brlecic, Adelaide Avalanche
Chris Sekura, West Sydney Ice Dogs
Greg Oddy, Adelaide Avalanche
James Keane, Adelaide Avalanche
Lliam Webster, Melbourne Ice
Murray Wand, Sydney Bears
Peter Matus, Melbourne Ice
Trevor Walsh, Adelaide Avalanche
Vlad Rubes, Sydney Bears
Andrew White, West Sydney Ice Dogs
Anthony Wilson, West Sydney Ice Dogs
Don Burke, Brisbane Bluetongues
Glen Foll, Newcastle Northstars
Josh Harding, Adelaide Avalanche
Luke Thilthorpe, Adelaide Avalanche
Mark Rummukainen, Brisbane Bluetongues
Tyler Lovering, Sydney Bears
Matt Ezzy, Newcastle Northstars
Stu Denman, Melbourne Ice

Team Management:
Fred Stevenson - Team Manager
Robert Barnes - Team Technical Adviser
Don Champagne - Head Coach
Ian Webster - Sports-Medicine Officer
Ray Sheffield - Equipment Officer
Don Rurak - Team Leader

Welcome

2006-03-11T12:44:00.000-12:00

Hello HockeyPulse readers and Australian Ice Hockey fans.

I hope you will enjoy my commentary throughout training camp and the World Championship Tournament. This was something Rowan and I talked about a few months ago - we thought it would be a good source of accurate information from the team's point of view.

If you think this would be of interest to others on your team or group of friends pass on the link. The more support we get from back home the better!

I look forward to reading your comments and I will try to address any questions you have of the team.