MELBOURNE, Victoria – After the Queen’s birthday long weekend break, AIHL action returned with some big match-ups to kick off the second half of the season. 
The Gold Coast Blue Tongues made the journey down to Melbourne for two crucial games in their quest to make up ground on conference leaders Melbourne Ice and Adelaide Adrenaline. On Saturday, they couldn’t have started their campaign any better with a comprehensive 6-1 drubbing of the Melbourne Mustangs.
Both teams sat locked together in third position, looking to take a clear advantage in the standings. A hat trick from Blue Tongues’ star import forward Mike McRae helped seal the deal over the hapless home team. McRae now has a total of 23 points from 10 games and is the key to Gold Coast’s charge at this year’s championship.
Gold Coast dominated in most areas of the game and despite being put under a lot of pressure into the second, the Mustangs wasted many opportunities and saw the game put beyond reach with a 1-4 deficit by the end of the second.
Sunday’s game saw a complete turnaround, as Gold Coast took on conference and league leaders, the Melbourne Ice. Less than 24 hours after handing out the 6-1 demolition, the Blue Tongues were humiliated going down to the top placed Ice 6-0 in a brutal display.
This was also Melbourne Ice’s star forward and National representative Tommy Powell’s return. After recovering from a knee injury, suffered in the World Championships in Poland held back in April. Powell didn’t waste any time coming away with a valuable assist and goal in the second period.
Melbourne Ice was brilliantly led by Jason Baclig, scoring three of the best in Melbourne’s devastating win and all six goals scored in the first two periods. The Ice put on a clinic until the game became extremely ugly late in the second.
The referees hand their hands full as tensions boiled over with almost every play.
The only aspect of the game Gold Coast dominated was the penalty count, suffering eleven out of the fourteen penalties handed down.
Gold Coast did show some pride in the third, controlling much of it and keeping Melbourne scoreless. Melbourne’s man between the pipes, Stu Denman would be the man to shut Gold Coast out and turning around a 0-4 loss on the Gold Coast when they last met.
In other games around the country, bottom placed (Eastern Conference) and newcomers Perth Thunder recorded their first ever wins at home, defeating the highly ranked Adelaide Adrenaline in two games and squaring their four game series at 2-2. The Thunder out skated, out bodied and out scored a disappointing Adrenaline outfit.
Adrenaline missed three of their top D-men, conceding eight goals over the two games while managing four themselves. If Adrenaline needed a reality check, then this was it and need to reassess going forward from here.
The Bauer conference saw The Sydney Ice Dogs hold off a determined Canberra Knights in Canberra on the Saturday, with a shoot-out needing to separate the two after regulation. But the Ice Dogs still needed four attempts to shake the persistent Knights and eventually taking the game 5-4.
On Sunday, the Sydney Bears took on Bauer Conference leaders, the Newcastle North Stars in what was to be a fast, furious end to end encounter. It took a sustained effort for the North Stars to hold the league cellar dwellers 3-1 and win their seventh game straight.
This weekend sees the Adrenaline with the weekend off. Perth Thunder make the long journey across the country to take on the Blue Tongues in their double-header. Melbourne Mustangs travel to Newcastle (Saturday) and Sydney Ice Dogs (Sunday). Melbourne Ice head to Canberra (Saturday) then Sydney Bears (Sunday) and the Sydney Bears will also catch up with their cross-city rivals the Sydney Ice Dogs on the Saturday.
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