Posted by admin on 16th, 2008
With a huge win over The Bears in their season home opener, the pressure was on the Blue Tongues to once again prevail over the league leaders. Having been introduced to the smaller rink and hard checking style of play produced by Gold Coast, The Bears were expected to hit back, and fast, against the Blue Tongues in their second game of the double header.
The Bears did not disappoint, coming at the Blue Tongues early in the game and changing their tactics to not only start playing a physical game, but also stamping their authority over the control of the game. Both teams seemed to lack the energy they had during Saturday’s game, and some simple rookie errors caused a line change for the Gold Coast team, starting to run two lines instead of three. Despite The Bears claiming control of the puck for majority of the first period however, it was Dave Upton of the Blue Tongues who netted the only goal of the first.
Tempers flared in the second, with roughing calls on both teams, and it was clear that neither team were giving up on their race to be the next to pot a goal. Both Sydney’s goaltender John Daugulis and Gold Coast’s Simo Mustonen had their work cut out for them in net as each team made shot after shot on goal. However, once again the Blue Tongues made some silly mistakes, costing them dearly on the penalty kill. It was The Bears that led going into the third, winning the period 3 goals to the Gold Coast’s lone goal, ending the period 3-2.
Excitement ruled the third, as the Blue Tongues tied up the scores on 3 a piece, before The Bears took advantage of a lapse in concentration and took the lead once more at 4-3 with little more than 8 minutes left in the game. The Blue Tongues never gave up, and with just under 2 minutes left, tied the game 4-4.
Anticipation was high in the stands as the teams took to the face off after a penalty was called on The Bears, giving the Blue Tongues a powerplay with a minute left in the third. Their fans behind them, Gold Coast focused on the job at hand and with 46 seconds left in the game, defenseman Ross Howell netted the game winning goal. The Bears failed to even up the scores in the dying seconds of the game, giving the Blue Tongues their third victory in the last three games.
The first star of the game was Blue Tongues Captain and centre, Billy Crumm. Second star of the game was Blue Tongues Defenseman, Don Burke and third star of the game was Bears’ Roberto Franchini.
Next weekend, the Blue Tongues face the Newcastle North Stars on June 21 & 22 at Gold Coast Iceland, Bundall. Games start at 3.30pm.
Article Source: Gold Coast Blue Tongues
Tags: IceHockey, AIHL, Blue Tongues, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney Bears, Gaetan Royer, Brian Lachance
Posted by admin on 15th, 2008
The Bartercard Gold Coast Blue Tongues have done what many believed to be the impossible. After starting out 5-0 on the road, they have come back to win back-to-back games against the AIHL league leading Sydney Bears. The game, a hard checking, end-to-end battle came right down to the wire, with the final puck going in the net just 40 seconds before the end of the third period while the Blue Tongues were on the Power Play.
The Blue Tongues now have a week to recover before playing the Newcastle Inski North Stars next weekend.
Bartercard Gold Coast Blue Tongues Ice Hockey Club
Posted by admin on 26th, 2008
Change. Often said to be as good as a holiday, sometimes said to be a hockey players best friend. For Jeff Halpern, the change of teams from Dallas to Tampa Bay seems to have litten a spark within him, and he’s been shining on a regular basis since.
You could go as far as to say that for the moment, Jeff Halpern is the best thing since sliced bread for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In the 64 games Halpern played with the Dallas Stars this season, he put up seemingly good numbers of 10 goals, 14 assists for 24 points. Halpern, the checking center on the Stars roster was not expected to be a top line goal scorer.
The trade deadline however saw Halpern shipped to Tampa Bay Lightning along with team mates Jussi Jokinen and netminder Mike Smith. Halpern has not looked back! In the 13 games with the bolts this season Halpern has put up 7 goals and 8 assists for 15 points… better than a point a game!
In todays 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers, Halpern netted a goal and 2 assists.
Jussi Jokinen has 1 goal and 9 assists for 10 points in 14 games with the Lightning, down on goals from his average with the Stars, but up on points.
*** image courtesy of gettys images .
*** Original location of image: http://lightning.nhl.com
Posted by admin on 24th, 2008
Normally a team others look up for strong defensive play, a never say die attitude and gritty, hard hitting forechecking, the Dallas Stars of late have not fit the bill. In fact over recent games the Stars, who have gone 3-7-0 in their last 10 games are in a major slump, and have chosen the worse possible time to do it.
All teams go through slumps though, and in the NHL these days a slump means very little in the big scheme of things. The Detroit Red Wings, who lead the entire league in points went through a slump very similar to the one the Stars are in, and went on to a hot streak soon after. The San Jose Sharks had a slump before going on their current hot streak.
For the Stars then, it’s surely only a matter of time before the team gains back its confidence and gets back on track. Stars Captain Brenden Morrow spoke of confidence recently…
“That’s probably one way to describe it,” Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. “I think confidence is an attitude you have. We’ve had it at times, but right now we don’t, and it’s going to take more than just one game to get it back. It’s going to take a handful of games where you get ugly, where you dig in, and where you earn your bounces. That’s the way we have to look at this, we have to look at it that we have a lot of work to do.”
- Mike Heika, Dallas Morning News
The Stars face the San Jose Sharks later this week, and hope to break their slump in California. Word is BJ Crombeen has been called up from the minors, so maybe look to see a cold-streak winger be a healthy scratch during the upcoming games.
Posted by admin on 26th, 2008
According to an NHL Executive, a multi-player trade has been made between Tampa Bay Lightning and the Dallas Stars.
The trade is rumoured to have Center Brad Richards move to Dallas in exchange for Center Jeff Halpern, Goalie Mike Smith and rookie Defenseman Mark Fistric.
“The Stars have looked to make a splash since Les Jackson and Brett Hull took over in the co-general manager role for the fired Doug Armstrong earlier this season. The source said Dallas is expected to package veteran checking center Jeff Halpern, backup goalie Mike Smith and young defenseman Mark Fistric to the Lightning, who needed to move Richards after signing defenseman Dan Boyle to a six-year, $40 million contract extension late Monday.”
…
By landing the 6-foot, 198-pound Richards, the Stars are set to receive a player who can handle loads of ice time, has a Stanley Cup on his resumé and is a centerpiece to build around as Mike Modano and Zubov look to pass the torch.
Richards has 18 goals and 51 points in 62 games, 228 shots and has averaged 24:17 of ice time. He’s durable as well. Richards has appeared in 552 of a possible 554 games since breaking into the league in 2000-01. The pivot is signed for $7.8 million each of the next three seasons.
- NHL @ Yahoo
It was also announced that the Atlanta Thrashers would ship Marian Hossa to the Montreal Canadiens. Details of the trade have not been released at this time.
Expect the Canadiens to send at least a forward (Michael Ryder?) to Atlanta, which insisted it would only trade the 29-year-old Hossa if it could get a current NHL player in return. Hossa is the Thrashers’ second-leading scorer with 56 points (26 goals, 30 assists and a team-high 229 shots). Hossa is a minus-14 averaging 21:55 of ice time in 60 games.
- NHL @ Yahoo
Details of these trades are yet to be confirmed by their respective teams.
