Womens Ice Hockey Australia News

Brisbane Moves Up

The Brisbane Goannas moved up the ladder from 4th to 2nd hosting a successful homestand against the Melbourne Dragons. After splitting games in Melbourne, the Goannas took the series with a win and a draw. The series victory positions Brisbane ahead of Melbourne on the ladder with both teams tied at 7 points each.

The Goannas may find it difficult to remain in second position as a daunting road trip to visit the first place Adelaide Assassins awaits. Melbourne will travel to Sydney, where the Sirens will look for revenge following two losses at the hands of the Dragons in Melbourne.

The Sirens are Back!

The Sirens were having a tough start to the season at 1-3, and things could have gotten a lot worse with Adelaide coming to town, but instead Sydney showed why they are still a team to be reckoned with handing Adelaide it's first loss of the season. Adelaide did earn a draw in the first game, but it was the first time the Assassins didn't win a game in a round since the opening games of the 2008-2009 season when they travelled to, you guessed it, Sydney.

Captain Rachel White scored a hat trick and set up another goal by Kath McOnie leading the Sirens to a draw in game one. The big match-up seemed to have gotten emotions going at 5 minutes left in the second there was a major penalty, two minors and a game misconduct. Penalties were taken advantage of by Sydney as they were able to convert two of six power plays into goals.

Game two remained scoreless until the third period when Sami Lai got Sydney on the board with a early third period goal assisted by Amelia Matheson and Rachel White. The Sirens struck again with their power play unit when Sami Lai scored again. Adelaide fought to the end scraping together a shorthanded goal with less than two minutes remaining, but could not get the equalizer. Goaltending was outstanding for both clubs. Sera Dogramaci earned the "W" saving 21 out of 22 shots for Sydney and Belinda James was tough for Adelaide stopping 23 out of 25.

The Assassins will get a quick chance for revenge when Sydney visits Adelaide next round.

Second Round shows Adelaide Dominance and Melbourne Emergence

Round two featured the Adelaide Assassins traveling north to Brisbane to face the Goannas. Game one started out tight as a scoreless first period left the teams deadlocked 0-0 mainly due to what looked to be a record-breaking number of penalties called on both teams who were battling hard. From there it was all Adelaide. Goalie Belinda James was able to shut out the Brisbane offense and Andrea Steranko led the scoring for Adelaide with two goals and an assist. The final score was 5-0 to Adelaide. Game MVP awards went out to Adelaide Goalie Belinda James and Brisbane Goalie Sheryn Gillin.

Game two saw the Assassins jump out to an early lead and not look back scoring 4 unanswered goals in the 1st period. Brisbane finally got on the board at 6-1 in the second period, but were not able to catch up with a great offensive performance by Adelaide. Natasha Farrier had her second hat-trick of the season to go with two assists with outstanding performances by Andrea Steranko (2 goals 3 assists) and Bethany Kavanagh (2 goals 2 assists) and Claudia Tom (16 saves). Final score Adelaide 10 Brisbane 2.

The Sydney Sirens hoofed it to Melbourne to meet up with the Dragons. We will know more once we get the gamesheets, but it has been confirmed that Melbourne has upset Sydney in both games winning 4-3 and 5-1. Melbourne tied three times last season, but did not win a game, so to come out and beat Sydney twice must have been a real treat for the hometown fans. Sydney is now 1-3 on the season heading into a 4-game series against the Adelaide Assassins juggernaut.

Great Photography from Frank Kutsche

Visit http://fkutsche.webs.com/ to check out some beautiful shots of games featuring the Adelaide Assasins vs. Brisbane Goannas and vs. Sydney Sirens from the 2008-2009 Season.

Frank is a sports photographer based in Adelaide focusing on motor sports, ice hockey and other sports. Contact Frank to order prints or a CD Rom set of 15+. He offers both very reasonable rates and captures great images. $20 for a big A4 print. $35 dollars for 2 A4 prints. $50 for a CD Set with minimum of 15 images. $20 for a single digital print. You can contact Frank off the contact section of his website at http://fkutsche.webs.com/

See photos from Adelaide vs. Sydney
See photos from Adelaide vs. Brisbane

The puck has dropped for the 2009-2010 Season

The opening round featured a matchup between defending champions Adelaide Assasins against last year's fourth place finishers, Melbourne Dragons. Adelaide continued thier dominance from last season, dispatching the visitors 8 to 4. The Assasins have some formidible weapons on offense in the name of Tash Farrier and Andrea Steranko, taking the second game 10-2.

The Brisbane Goannas travelled to NSW to face-off against rival Sydney Sirens. Game one saw a big upset as the Goannas won 5-3. In game 2, a late Sirens power-play goal broke a 4-4 tie to level the series at one game a piece.

The Assasins are on top of the ladder after the opening weekend. Round two will be big as Adelaide will travel to Brisbane and Sydney will be off to Melbourne. Check back here for scores, statistics and commentary!