2022 AIHL season

When the 2022 season was announced by the AIHL, it was indicated that all eight current AIHL teams would participate.[1] The AIHL in February 2022 released the regular season schedule and it contained fixtures for all eight teams, home and away.[5] In response to the schedule, the Perth Thunder released a public statement on 12 February 2022, confirming the current Western Australian border restrictions presented challenges for the team to participate in the 2022 season, but the team would continue to dialog with stakeholders and hope for a resolution from the state government.[15] On 18 February 2022, the Thunder in conjunction with the AIHL announced the team would not participate in the 2022 AIHL season due to uncertainty of when the WA border would open again and the limited time left to organise the team and travel prior to the 2022 season kicking off. The Thunder did offer the possibility of exhibition matches being played in Perth in 2022 to compensate for the unfortunate situation for its players, staff, fans and sponsors.[2]

Adelaide Adrenaline's participation in the 2022 AIHL season has been caste in doubt with negotiations with Adelaide IceArenA, the only ice rink facility in Adelaide, breaking down.[3] On 15 February 2022, IceArenA management released a signed letter with a list of accusations and grievances against the AIHL and ended the letter stating it would be difficult for the arena to support the AIHL.[16] The Adrenaline deemed the subsequent draft agreement proposed by the IceArenA management for use of the facility for the 2022 AIHL season as non-equitable and unviable.[3] On 27 March 2022, the Adrenaline officially withdrew from the 2022 AIHL season.[4]

On 26 February 2022, the CBR Brave responded to an unconfirmed claim that they were looking to leave the AIHL, by confirming their status as an AIHL team and committing to the league and the 2022 season.[17][18] Brave CEO, Sunny Singh, said the league had taken profound action in addressing key issues the Brave had heading into the 2022 season.[18]

Two regular season games set to be played in Melbourne between the CBR Brave and Melbourne Mustangs were first postponed and later cancelled in July 2022. The games, scheduled for 2 and 3 July 2022, were postponed after flight cancellations at Canberra Airport left the CBR Brave stranded in Canberra and unable to fly to Melbourne for the double header against the Mustangs. Despite efforts to rebook both the Saturday and Sunday games were postponed on the Saturday.[19][20] Both teams tried to reschedule the two games but ultimately were unsuccessful. On 30 July 2022 it was revealed the game were cancelled and both teams would share the six points on offer, three points each.[21] The League confirmed the games were officially cancelled on 3 August 2022.[22]

Two teams decided against pursuing AIHL licenses in 2022. The Melbourne Ducks played exhibition matches against AIHL teams in 2021 but decided to join the new Pacific Hockey League in 2022.[23] Joining the Ducks in the Pacific Hockey League is the Brisbane Rampage, who abandoned their strategic goal of obtaining an AIHL license in favour of joining the rival league.[23] Ice Hockey Queensland (IHQ) subsequently decided to withdraw their endorsement of the Rampage and seek an AIHL license themselves in partnership with Brisbane Buccaneers and the Southern Stars.[24][25] On 28 February 2022, IHQ was granted an AIHL license by the league commission.[26] IHQ revealed their new AIHL team would play out of Boondall Iceworld and be called Brisbane Lightning.[27] On 7 March 2022, it was reveled former AIHL team, Central Coast Rhinos, had made contact with the AIHL to obtain a new license and present their case for re-admission to the league.[28] The Rhinos last played in the AIHL in 2008 before a licensing disagreement saw the team leave the league. They applied for re-entry in 2015, but were unsuccessful in their application on that occasion.[29] On 10 March 2022, the AIHL made the decision to grant the Rhinos a new AIHL license, ending the team's 14-year hiatus out of the league.[30] Central Coast will play out of their spiritual home, Erina Ice Arena, which went through major renovations and upgrades between 2019 and 2022.[31][32] Both the Lightning and Rhinos will play exhibition matches in 2022 with a view for both to join the AIHL regular league schedule in 2023.[27][30]

The Brisbane Lightning, Central Coast Rhinos and Perth Thunder all announced in pre-season that they would be perusing to play exhibition games during the AIHL 2022 regular season.[27][30][2] In total 29 exhibition games were scheduled in 2022, consisting of pre-season warm-ups, games with new teams and games with the Thunder during the regular season. Most games were announced with the release of the revised AIHL 2022 season schedule on 8 April 2022,[6] however, the first exhibition series between the Sydney Bears and Newcastle Northstars was made public on 17 March 2022 and consisted of two pre-season match ups at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in Newcastle and Macquarie Ice Rink in North Sydney.[33] The team breakup of exhibition games for 2022 see the Lightning scheduled for 16 games, Bears 9 games, Rhinos 8 games, Northstars 6 games, Thunder, Mustangs and Ice Dogs 4 games, Ice 3 games and Brave 2 games. On 24 July 2022, the exhibition game between the Brisbane Lightning and Sydney Bears held as Iceworld Boondall in Brisbane was abandoned near the end of the second period follow an ugly high sticking incident.[34] Subsequently, the AIHL Player Safety Committee concluded its investigation into the incident that led to the abandoned game and made the following ruling. The Brisbane Lightning player involved was suspended for 2+5 AIHL games (7 in total) and suspended from all Ice Hockey Australia national events until the suspension is completed in 2023. The Sydney Bears organisation was fined $3,500 for intentionally forfeiting the game.[35]

On 12 February 2022, the AIHL announced its new board of directors and key executives for 2022. The board comprises Garry Doré, Peter Jon Hartshorne, Wayne Hellyer and Joyce Price, with Hartshorne acting as chairman. Christine Bertolotti was appointed head of finance, Dawn Watt head of operations and Rob Duchemin head of referees & discipline.[7]

There has been a number of franchise personal changes in addition to the league itself for 2022. These include a new executive team being appointed in February 2022 at the Sydney Bears. Nathan Graham became president and will be assisted by Andrew Bourne, Ruby Bray and Hamish Davey as vice presidents. Vanessa Saros takes over duties as Bears secretary.[36] In March 2022, Adelaide Adrenaline appointed Glen Foll as new director of hockey operations and Benny Gebert as director of club operations, after the duo secured the operating license for the Adrenaline franchise from the AIHL.[37]

There have also been a number of coaching changes for AIHL teams in 2022. The Sydney Ice Dogs lost Andrew Petrie, after he resigned in November 2021.[38] He was replaced as head coach by former Czech player Ondrej Cervenka in March 2022.[39] Adelaide Adrenaline and head coach Sami Mantere parted ways following the cancellation of the 2020 season. Mantere chose to sign for Adelaide Avalanche in March 2022 for the inaugural season of the Pacific Hockey League.[40] Also in March, the newly formed Brisbane Lightning announced Terry Kiliwnik as their maiden head coach and Ivan Rapchuk as his assistant.[41] In April, the Melbourne Mustangs appointed Canadian Chris Lawrence as head coach for 2022. This will be Lawrence's first head coach position as he comes off a long playing career in the AHL, ECHL and EIHL.[42] The Mebourne Ice turned to a familiar long term servant of the club with their appointment of Sandy Gardner as head coach for 2022. This will be Gardner's third stint as head coach of the Melbournian club. He would be joined by fellow long term clubman Brent Laver as his assistant coach alongside newcomer Michael Flaherty, who joined the club with a CV including head coaching the Mustangs, Glaciers and Victoria.[43] Canberra announced Stuart Philps would be retained as head coach for 2022, following his signing in the lead up to the cancelled 2020 season. Philps would be assisted by the returning Andrew Brunt, who had last coached the ACT team in the Brown Trophy in 2017 and had been the Brave assistant in 2015.[44] Early in the season, Newcastle Northstars changed coaching staff responsibilities with Canadian Kevin Noble shifted to head coach and John Kennedy moved to assistant coach alongside Amelia Matheson.

The 2022 regular season of 60 games, is scheduled to run from 30 April 2022 through to 28 August 2022, with each team playing 20 games. The top four teams qualify and advance to compete in the Goodall Cup finals weekend. The original schedule for 2022, consisting of 112 games had to be amended following the withdrawal of the Adrenaline and Thunder from the 2022 season, resulting in a reduction in the total number regular season games.[5][6]

2022 AIHL season top-ten skater statistics for points, goals, assists and penalty minutes.[101]

Points # Name Team Pos Pts 1 Casey Kubara CB F 52 2 Wehebe Darge CB F 50 3 Mario Valery-Trabucco CB F 46 4 Francis Drolet NN F 45 5 Scott Timmins MM F 41 6 Daniel Berno NN F 40 7 Tomas Landa SB F 38 8 Andreas Camenzind CB F 38 9 Ty Wishart MM D 36 10 Alexandre Gauthier SB D 34

Goals # Name Team Pos G 1 Casey Kubara CB F 25 2 Scott Timmins MM F 23 3 Daniel Berno NN F 23 4 Mario Valery-Trabucco CB F 20 5 Francis Drolet NN F 18 6 Wehebe Darge CB F 17 7 Tomas Landa SB F 16 8 Strat Allen SD D 15 9 Andreas Camenzind CB F 14 10 Robert Malloy NN D 14

Assists # Name Team Pos A 1 Wehebe Darge CB F 33 2 Ty Wishart MM D 29 3 Casey Kubara CB F 27 4 Francis Drolet NN F 27 5 Mario Valery-Trabucco CB F 26 6 Andreas Camenzind CB F 24 7 Alexandre Gauthier SB D 23 8 Tomas Landa SB F 22 9 Michael Poirier SB D 22 10 Tyler Kubara CB F 22

Penalty minutes # Name Team Pos PIM 1 Sam Hodic MI F 64 2 Alexandre Gauthier SB D 59 3 Alec Stephenson SD F 57 4 Liam Manwarring NN F 53 5 Joey Hughes CB F 51 6 Shannon McGregor SD D 49 7 Sean Oultram NN D 47 8 Jermaine Joyce MI D 44 9 Patrick Nadin NN F 39 10 Christian Pansino MI F 38

2022 AIHL season top-ten¹ goaltender statistics for goals against average and save percentage.[102]

¹ Due to reduced regular season and competing teams in 2022, there were only 6 goaltenders who played 10+ games to qualify for these lists.

Goals against average # Name Team Pos GAA 1 Alexandre Tetreault CB G 2.74 2 James Downie NN G 3.77 3 Glen Forbes White SB G 4.19 4 Sebastian Woodlands MM G 4.39 5 Michael James MI G 5.71 6 Jakob Doornbos SD G 6.80

Save percentage # Name Team Pos SV% 1 Alexandre Tetreault CB G .893 2 James Downie NN G .883 3 Sebastian Woodlands MM G .873 4 Michael James MI G .862 5 Jakob Doornbos SD G .853 6 Glen Forbes White SB G .851

Every Tuesday the League, through sponsorship, names a local player of the week.[103]
The award is based on the following criteria:

• individual performance, including significant game statistics;
• contribution to the team's success through individual leadership abilities; and
• performance off the ice, including community engagement.

Round	Awarded to	Pos	Ref
1	Wehebe Darge	F	Ref
2	James Downie	G	Ref
3	Jordon Brunt	F	Ref
4	Christian Pansino	F	Ref
5	Kenshin Hayashi	F	Ref
6	Casey Kubara	F	Ref
7	Strat Allen	F	Ref
8	Sebastian Woodlands	G	Ref
9	Glen Forbes-White	G	Ref
10	Jake Ratcliffe	F	Ref
11	Richard Tesarik	F	Ref
12	Mitchell Humphries	F	Ref
13	Michael James	G	Ref
14	Liam Manwarring	F	Ref
15	Daniel Pataky	D	Ref
16	Matt Armstrong	F	Ref
17	Ellesse Carini	F	Ref
18	Tim Nikitin	F	Ref

Below lists the 2022 AIHL regular season award winners.[104]

Award	Name	Team
MVP	Casey Kubara	CBR Brave
Goaltender	Michael James	Melbourne Ice
Defenceman	Ty Wishart	Melbourne Mustangs
Local	Casey Kubara	CBR Brave
Rookie	Ethan Hawes	Newcastle Northstars
Coach	Kevin Noble	Newcastle Northstars