2012 AIHL season

In 2012 the AIHL had 9 teams competing in the league.[1]

2012 AIHL teams

Team	City	Arena	Head Coach	Captain
Adelaide Adrenaline	Adelaide	IceArenA	Ryan O'Handley	Greg Oddy
Canberra Knights	Canberra	Phillip Ice Skating Centre	Bear McPhail	Mark Rummukainen
Gold Coast Blue Tongues	Gold Coast	Iceworld Boondall	Peter Nixon	Adam Geric
Melbourne Ice	Melbourne	Medibank Icehouse	Paul Watson	Vinnie Hughes
Melbourne Mustangs	Melbourne	Medibank Icehouse	Bill Wilkinson	Shane Hardy
Newcastle North Stars	Newcastle	Hunter Ice Skating Stadium	Garry Doré	Ray Sheffield
Perth Thunder	Perth	Perth Ice Arena	Stan Scott	Samuel Wilson
Sydney Bears	Sydney	Sydney Ice Arena	Vladimir Rubes	Michael Schlamp
Sydney Ice Dogs	Sydney	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	Ron Kuprowsky	Andrew White

During the off-season the Australian Ice Hockey League announced that Perth Thunder had been accepted as a full member of the league expanding the competition to nine teams. The Mustangs IHC changed their name to the Melbourne Mustangs after the AIHL lifted a condition that prohibited the use of "Melbourne" in their team name. The restriction was originally put in place to protect the brand of the Melbourne Ice.[2] It was also announced that from 2012 the league would be split into two conferences in order to manage costs and length of the season.[3] The two conferences where named the Bauer Conference and Easton Conference after the AIHL signed a three-year deal with the Skaters Network who is the distributor of the ice hockey brands Bauer Hockey and Easton Hockey. The Bauer Conference will consist of the Canberra Knights, Newcastle North Stars, Sydney Bears, and the Sydney Ice Dogs, while the Easton Conference includes the Adelaide Adrenaline, Gold Coast Blue Tongues, Melbourne Ice, Melbourne Mustangs and the Perth Thunder.[4] Following the announcement of the conference system a change in the finals playoff structure was also announced. The winners of each conference at the end of the regular season would play in a semi-final against the runner-up of the opposing conference with the winners of the semi-finals progressing to the Goodall Cup final.[4] It was also announced a one-year partnership with Virgin Australia in which the airline would become the leagues preferred supplier for the 2012 season.[5] In February 2012 the Sydney Bears announced that they were leaving the Penrith Ice Palace as their home arena and were returning to play their games at the Sydney Ice Arena in Baulkham Hills where they had previously played from 2003 to 2006.[6] In April 2012 the AIHL announced that the Sydney Ice Dogs would be restricted to the dress of only three import players per game, as opposed to the normal four. The restriction is part of the penalties imposed on the club after it breached the AIHL code of conduct during the 2011 Goodall Cup final series in which a player and two team officials were involved in an assault of a Medibank Icehouse security guard.[7][8]

Prior to the start of the regular season, three exhibition games were held. The first game was held between the Mustangs and the Melbourne Ice at the Medibank Icehouse with the Mustangs winning the game 5–2.[9][10] The second and third games were played between the Sydney Bears and the Sydney Ice Dogs, with the Sydney Bears winning the first game 5–2 and the Sydney Ice Dogs winning the second game 5–4 in a shootout.[11][12]

On 3 June, Gold Coast Blue Tongues' home game against the Melbourne Ice at Bundall Iceland was called off after a shortened first period due to an unplayable surface; it was the second such cancellation in less than a year at Bundall Iceland, with 10 July 2011 match between the Blue Tongues and Sydney Ice Dogs cancelled without play for the same reason.[13] After the cancelled game, Gold Coast was evicted from the rink by its owners,[14] and on 8 June, it was announced that its remaining seven home games for the season would be played at Iceworld in Acacia Ridge, Brisbane; the matches will begin at 10:30pm, with a better time unable to be negotiated with the rink due to the short notice of the relocation.[15] Although Melbourne was offered a win by forfeit for the cancelled match, the club agreed instead to reschedule the match to Thursday 23 August, to be played in Melbourne (although technically a Gold Coast home game).[16]

During July there will be a weeks break for the first Trans-Tasman Champions League. The formation of the Trans-Tasman Champions League was announced back in August 2011 between the AIHL and the New Zealand Ice Hockey League (NZIHL).[17] The series will feature two teams from each the AIHL and the NZIHL each playing the others once with the winner being the team who finishes first in the round-robin standings. The two teams chosen from each league will be the 2011 regular season champions and the winner of the 2011 playoffs. In a situation where the winning of both events is the same the runner up of the playoff final will be selected to represent their respective league.[17]

Player transfers

Date	Player	Previous team	New team	Ref
15 February 2012	Matthew Ezzy	Newcastle North Stars	Retired	[18]
29 February 2012	Olivier Martin	Adelaide Adrenaline	Newcastle North Stars	[19]
9 March 2012	Dan Nicholls	Texas Brahmas	Adelaide Adrenaline	[20]
14 March 2012	Brett Liscomb	New Jersey Outlaws	Adelaide Adrenaline	[21]
14 March 2012	Wehebe Darge	Alaska Avalanche	Adelaide Adrenaline	[22]
14 March 2012	David Manning	SUNY-Potsdam	Adelaide Adrenaline	[23]
14 March 2012	Darren Corstens	Viikingit	Adelaide Adrenaline	[24]
14 March 2012	Tomas Landa	HC Risuty	Sydney Bears	[25]
19 March 2012	Aaron Barton	University of Ottawa	Adelaide Adrenaline	[26]
20 March 2012	Kirk Golden	Toulouse-Blagnac	Sydney Ice Dogs	[27]
20 March 2012	Casey Mignone	Pensacola Ice Flyers	Sydney Ice Dogs	[28]
27 March 2012	Andrew Crowther	Bobcaygeon Bucks	Melbourne Ice	[29]
27 March 2012	Mitchell Humphries	Banff Academy Bears	Melbourne Ice	[30]
27 March 2012	Todd Graham	Connecticut Jr. Wolfpack	Melbourne Ice	[31]
27 March 2012	Marcus Wong	EVU U20	Melbourne Ice	[32]
30 March 2012	Doug Wilson	No team	Melbourne Ice	[33]
30 March 2012	Matt Korthuis	HYS The Hague	Melbourne Ice	[34]
4 April 2012	Jeremy Boyer	Quad City Mallards	Newcastle North Stars	[35]
8 April 2012	Beau Taylor	Swan Valley Stampeders	Newcastle North Stars	[36]
17 April 2012	Robbie Lawrance	HYC Herentals	Newcastle North Stars	[37]
23 April 2012	Shannon McGregor	Bobcaygeon Bucks	Sydney Ice Dogs	[38]
23 April 2012	Gabriel Robledo	Sydney Bears	Sydney Ice Dogs	[39]
24 April 2012	John Kennedy	Dayton Gems	Canberra Knights	[40]
24 April 2012	Nic Polaski	Dayton Gems	Canberra Knights	[41]
24 April 2012	Lucas Schott	Brooklyn Aviators	Canberra Knights	[42]
29 April 2012	Andreas Camenzind	Rapperswil-Jona Lakers	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[43]
30 April 2012	George Huber	Botany Swarm	Adelaide Adrenaline	[44]
29 June 2012	Mitch Morgan	HYC Herentals	Adelaide Adrenaline	[45]
8 July 2012	Carter Lawrence	Notre Dame Argos HR Midget Tier2	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[46]
2012	Michael Smart	Toronto Canada Moose	Sydney Bears	[47]
2012	Kiefer Smiley	Mississippi Surge	Perth Thunder	[48]
2012	Anthony Nottle	EHC/2 U20	Perth Thunder	[49]
2012	Aaron Wilson	Friesland Flyers	Perth Thunder	[50]
2012	Andrew Cox	Karhu-Kissat	Perth Thunder	[51]
2012	Phil Ginand	Kalamazoo Wings	Perth Thunder	[52]
2012	Jordan Kyros	EHC/2 U20	Perth Thunder	[53]
2012	Bradley Young	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	Perth Thunder	[54]
2012	Andrey Zolotarev	Viikingit	Adelaide Adrenaline	[55]
2012	Mike Brown	Fayetteville FireAntz	Canberra Knights	[56]
2012	Harrison Byers	Ochapowace Thunder	Canberra Knights	[57]
2012	Tom Letki	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	Canberra Knights	[58]
2012	Kai Miettinen	UJK	Canberra Knights	[59]
2012	Anthony Kimlin	Whitby Dunlops	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[60]
2012	Adam Blanchette	Danbury Whalers	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[61]
2012	Casey Minson	ESC Darmstadt	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[62]
2012	Tom Pesce	Middlebury College	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[63]
2012	James Sanford	Melbourne Mustangs	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[64]
2012	Christopher Wong	EPS U17	Melbourne Ice	[65]
2012	Dean Moore	Kramfors-Alliansen	Melbourne Mustangs	[66]
2012	John Sullivan	Columbus Cottonmouths	Melbourne Mustangs	[67]
2012	Kevin Day	Solna SK	Newcastle North Stars	[68]
2012	David Upton	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	Newcastle North Stars	[69]
2012	Chris Slauenwhite	Adelaide Adrenaline	Sydney Bears	[70]
2012	Slavomir Boris	Canberra Knights	Sydney Bears	[71]
2012	Daniel Spina	Toronto Canada Moose	Sydney Ice Dogs	[72]
2012	Oliver Wren	SUNY Brockport	Melbourne Mustangs	[73]
2012	Carter Lawrence	Notre Dame Argos HR Midget Tier2	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[46]
2012	Etienne Du Toit	No team	Gold Coast Blue Tongues	[74]

The regular season will start on 28 April 2012 and will run through to 26 August 2012 before the teams compete in the playoff series.[75] The Gold Coast Blue Tongues' final seven home games were relocated from Bundall, Gold Coast to Acacia Ridge, Brisbane after the cancelled match on 3 June. All relocated matches were scheduled to commence at 10:30pm, and the dates of some of the matches were adjusted to accommodate the away teams' travel plans.[76]

The Newcastle North Stars won the H Newman Reid Trophy after finishing the regular season with the most points, 52.[77] On 29 August the AIHL released the list of finalists for the 2012 awards. Matt Armstrong of the Melbourne Ice, Jeremy Boyer of the Newcastle North Stars, Perth Thunder's Kenny Rolph and Sydney Bears' Tomas Landa were nominated for the Most Valuable Player award, with Boyer and Landa both winning the award. Aaron Barton of Adelaide Adrenaline, Anthony Kimlin of the Gold Coast Blue Tongues and Perth Thunder's Kiefer Smiley were nominated for the Top Goaltender award with Anthony Kimlin being named the winner. Adam Blanchette of the Blue Tongues, Scott Levitt of the Melbourne Mustangs and Newcastle's Rob Lawrance were nominated for the Top Defenceman award with Rob Lawrance being announced as the winner. George Huber of the Adrenaline, Greg Bay of the Blue Tongues, the Mustangs' Brendan McDowell and Perth's David Kudla were all nominated for the Rookie of the Year award with George Huber and Greg Bay tying for the win.[78][79]

Season awards

Below lists the 2012 AIHL regular season award winners.

Award	Name	Team
MVP	Tomas Landa Jeremy Boyer	Sydney Bears Newcastle North Stars
Goaltender	Anthony Kimlin	Gold Coast Blue Tongues
Defenceman	Robbie Lawrance	Newcastle North Stars
Rookie	Greg Bay Charlie Huber	Gold Coast Blue Tongues Adelaide Adrenaline

Source

The 2012 playoffs started on 1 September 2012, with the Goodall Cup final being held on 2 September.[75] Following the end of the regular season the top two teams from each conference advanced to the playoff series with the winner of each conference playing in the semi-final round against the runner-up of the other conference.[4] All three games were held at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in Warners Bay, New South Wales, the home of the Newcastle North Stars. The series was a single game elimination with the two winning semi-finalists advancing to the Goodall Cup final.[82] The Melbourne Ice completed the three-peat and won the Goodall Cup for the third year in a row after defeating the Newcastle North Stars in the final.[83] Todd Graham of the Melbourne Ice was named the finals MVP.[79]

All times are UTC+10:00

• The Australian Ice Hockey League