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National Senior Team
AUSTRALIAN 2009 NATIONAL SENIOR TEAM TRAINING CAMP
Ice Hockey Australia’s 2009 National Senior Team arrived at Teen Ranch in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada last week for seven days of intense training in preparation for the IIHF 2009 World Division I Group B Championship in Vilnius, Lithuania starting next week.
The Aussies played their first exhibition game yesterday evening against the Mississauga Selects, a team comprised of a mixture of University and Junior A players. Lliam Webster led the way with a "hat trick" to give the Aussies a 6 – 1 win over the visitors. Veteran goaltender, Matt Ezzy was in the net for the Aussies.
In the first period, both teams played a cautious and close game until Scott Stephenson notched the games first goal with 4:34 remaining on a ‘tick-tack-toe’ passing combination from defencemen, Jarrad Seymour and Rob Starke. Two minutes later Harding and Oddy combined to feed Webster in the slot for his first of the game. The period ended 2 – 0 in favour of the Aussies.
The second period saw both teams step up the tempo. At the 8:26 mark, David Dunwoodie skated through the offensive pack to feed Greg Oddy on a breakaway, who made no mistake to increase the Aussies lead to 3 – 0. The remainder of the period remained scoreless.
Stu Denman replaced Ezzy in the third for the Aussies with Aussie’s third goaltender, Anthony Kimlin between the pipes for the visitors. At the 11:43 mark, Tomas Manco, unassisted fired a Kimlin rebound to stretch the Aussies lead to 4 – 0. Two minutes later, the visitors notched their first and only goal for the game taking the score to 4 – 1. At the 10:06 mark, Webster notched his second for the game, followed by his third for a final score of 6 – 1 in favour of the Aussies.
Head Coach, Steve McKenna stated:- "This was a good test for our boys and gave us a good indication on our strengths and weaknesses. We’ll hit the ice again tomorrow morning for a two hour session to work on our evaluations. I was overly pleased with our play, especially with our younger players. Mitch Villani is definitely at home with Oddy and Webster. Jarrad Seymour, who will be playing for Cornell University starting next season, has added depth to our defensive core."
The Aussies have two more days of preparation prior to departing for Lithuania on Wednesday.
GOLD For NYT
IHA’s 2009 NYT-2009 took Gold Medal honors at the IIHF 2009 World Division III Group A Championship in Chinese Taipei in early March.
Congratulations to the Victorian members:
· Austin McKenzie
· Corey Vickers
· Marcus Wong.
In the Gold Medal game after starting sluggishly with a boisterous capacity crowd and 2 goals up for Taipei after the first period, Australia launched 7 unanswered goals for the remainder of the game with 73 shots for versus 26 against. Michael Smart (WA) was in the net for Australia.
Wehebe Darge (SA) hit the twine fours times for Australia and took Best Forward for the Championship and Australia’s MVP honors with 17 goals and 10 assists for a total of 27 points. Joel McFadden (NSW) with 15 points, Billy Cliff with 13 points, Steve Best (SA) and Eric Sewell (QLD) with 11 points each were top five points players for the Championship.
Australia was a dominant force throughout the Championship superior puck control and positional play as compared to the other teams. Finding the net more often on their numerous scoring opportunities will easily place Australia at a much better than expected ranking in Division II next year.
A number of first time NYT rookie players now have a taste of Gold for the first time and will be the basis for formidable strength for Australia’s team in the 2010 Division II Championships.
Job well done by the players and team officials.
See the IIHF Championship website for all Championship statistics.
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