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HELLYER LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Ice	4	4	0	12
Thunder	6	4	2	12
Bears	4	3	1	9
Mustangs	2	1	1	3
Ice Dogs	5	1	4	3

RURAK LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	OTW	OTL	PTS
Northstars	4	3	0	1	0	11
Lightning	6	3	3	0	0	9
Adrenaline	3	1	1	0	1	4
Brave	6	1	5	0	0	3
Rhinos	4	0	4	0	0	0

SCORING LEADERS

Jeremiah
Addison (PER)

Player	Points
Aiden Wagner (NNS)	18
Wehebe Darge (NNS)	15
francis Drolet (NNS)	15
Zane Jones (PER)	13

GOALIE LEADERS

N Novysedlak (BRE)

1.000

Goalie	SV%
Rhys Pelliccione (PER)	.950
Tatsunoshin Ishida (MIC)	.933
Leo Bertein (PER)	.905
Charles Smart (NNS)	.903

Ice Dogs edge Mustangs in playoff preview

Monday, August 25, 2014 - Submitted by Tina Girdler

Sydney Ice Dogs claimed a third straight win to end their regular season on a high with a 4-3 shootout win over the Melbourne Mustangs at Liverpool Catholic Club on Sunday.

With the Mustangs finishing atop the AIHL ladder and the Ice Dogs in fourth, the teams will play again next Saturday in the first semi-final.

The Melbourne Mustangs could have lost the match and still claimed the minor premiership due to the Ice’s loss to the Perth Thunder. This will be the first post season appearance for the team and head coach, Brad Vigon couldn’t have been more pleased with the team’s achievements.

“I’m super proud of all the guys,” Vigon said. “They’ve put in a lot of hard work and we’ve had our ups and downs this season but to finish and win the minor premiership is just an awesome achievement by this group of guys.”

With both teams having not met since early May, they wowed the crowd in Sydney with some high-intensity and face paced physical playoff-style hockey as a preview for their semi-final match-up.

“We actually didn’t have much of a game plan today, it was more ‘go out and play the game, get ready for playoffs,’” Sydney Ice Dogs goalie Tim Noting said. “No one wanted to hold back because we’re already in playoff mode so that was the game right there and everyone loves that.”

In the early exchanges, the game was played in the neutral zone but the Mustangs quickly reasserted why they The game opened with both teams testing each other out by exchanging chances and finishing checks. Melbourne drew first blood on the power play with the ever-dangerous speedy Pat O’Kane scoring his 21^st goal of the season.

The Ice Dogs responded with renewed intensity and returned the favour with a top line power play goal and Simon Barg’s first of a double for the night that helped him claim the league’s overall scoring leader title for the regular season.

On the next shift, Melbourne Mustang’s Jack Wolgemuth ripped a shot through traffic past Noting to score his sixth goal of the season in what would be a three-point night for the defensemen.

“If I can see the puck, I can start saving it,” Noting said. “[Stuff] happens, you just have to be focused and get the next puck as there’s not much you can do when it hits their stick and tape; it’s a good goal by them.”

Sydney’s John Clewlow had a breakaway short-handed goal in the dying seconds of the period to tie the game but it was deemed a no-goal after it was ruled to have gone in after the time had elapsed in the period.

Playoff style hockey continued into the second with the goalies taking centre stage to keep it scoreless. Fraser Carson and the Mustang’s put bodies on the line to kill off a 5-3 Ice Dogs power play mid period with the Ice Dog’s Noting countering with some convincing glove saves to end the second 2-1.

Coming into the third from behind was not ideal for the Ice Dogs but they didn’t back down from the fight with Brian Funes’ tying the game early for his fourth of the season.

“We’ve been in this position before in the season,” Noting said. “We just do what we did before and just turn it around. We’re a team that finishes strong, so just go out and play our game.”

Melbourne Mustang’s Brendan McDowell scored next to retake the lead briefly before Clewlow and Robert Malloy assisted Barg on his second goal of the night to tie the game for the Ice Dogs.

Simon Barg’s two-goal night enabled him to beat out CBR Brave’s Stephen Blunden by a single point for the AIHL leading scorer title with 23 goals and a total 69 points. It was another day in the office for the modest 2.7 points per game player who preferred to focus on the team to individual achievement.

“It feels good but really I wasn’t really thinking about that just getting our team rolling for the finals weekend,” Barg said. “We’re on a bit of a roll here and we’re going to try to carry that into next weekend. We’ve got a good group of guys with three solid lines, our D jump in the play and our goalie is good.”

The penalties continued from both sides with neither able to capitalise on the power play including a 5-3 opportunity for the Mustang’s. Sydney’s David Dunwoodie and Melbourne’s Vinnie Hughes were frequent flyers to the box but neither side was too concerned with penalties that continued till the final seconds of the game

“We always like to try to minimise and limit those,” Vigon said. “It’s a rough game but sometimes stuff happens. We talk a lot about discipline and the guys are doing their best to stick to it but stuff happens. It was a hard hitting, physical game and it always is here in Liverpool because you’ve got a little smaller ice surface so they’re able to play a high pressure, high intensity game.”

The game went into overtime in what would be the third shootout all season for both teams. Two of the three Mustang’s shooters missed the net and the Ice Dog’s Billy Cliff stickhandled himself into a sprawl on top of goalie Carson in the blue. Paul Baranzelli faked Carson out to score five hole with Noting sealing the Sydney win with the final save.

Positives were taken from both teams for the game and preview what is sure to be a high intensity and physical semi-final match-up.

“The whole team really stepped up,” Vigon said. “They played in the face of a really intense Ice Dogs and they stepped up to the challenge.”

“We knew they were fast; they move the puck pretty well,” Barg said. “We’re just trying to stay having good habits for next weekend; just keeping the intensity up and building off what we’ve done in the last couple of weeks.”

With the Melbourne Mustang’s this season’s minor premiers and the Ice Dogs last year’s Goodall cup champions, the puck drops at 3pm in the Medibank Ice House in Melbourne in what is sure to be a tremendous battle for a grand final berth.

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