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OH my god we’re back! Bigger, better, and badder than ever. Yes ladies and gentlemen, DIHL is back, it’s spring, and the ice is well-chilled. 10 teams, two grades, over 120 players, 7 weeks of competition. Drop the puck!
I think last DIHL more people read my picks for the competition, that actually registered for the forum. All adds to the entertainment, so I’ll be doing it all again this season.
I’m not playing B grade however, and my life is going to largely prevent me even being there to see the games, so Ryan Hellyer is taking charge of Wednesday nights. So I might make picks on the B grade, but they’ll be uninformed dribble. Unlike my A grade picks, which will be well-informed dribble.
Maybe someone who’s actually playing B grade might step up and and represent?
The normal warnings apply, particularly “Phantoms represent!” Yup. The Phantoms are entering in the DIHL for the first time (check out our shiny new tops when they arrive in a month or so) after a pretty successful run in the A grade competition (4 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses, including a 3-2 loss in the final).
So, enough prelims and waffle. On with the picks.
[b:36qwrdsp]A Grade[/b:36qwrdsp]
These are the heavies. The big guns have signed up to play, and the Spring DIHL is looking pretty stacked. We’ve brought Steve Jackson and Mike Sam out of Ice Blacks retirement to cut up the ice and show these young’uns just how ice hockey is played. The Dunedin Stampede boys are in, and there’s a pile of Penguins, who have spent all season practising, but not playing, lining up the benches.
Hockey as good as you can see it without travelling on State Highway 1. Let’s see how the teams stack up.
[b:36qwrdsp]Phantoms[/b:36qwrdsp]
A team of mostly young tykes, including some inline converts, the team has stripped down a little for the DIHL, and brought in Steve Jackson to beef up the attacking ranks. A bunch of hard-working players, who had a pretty good pre-season in the A grade competition, working well as a team and supporting each other from the bench.
Players to watch:
Steve Jackson. Ex-Ice Blacks captain, experience coming out his ears, the Phantoms will be looking to him not just on the ice, but also on the bench, lending his words of wisdom.
Adrian van Leeuwen. Not taking his ice hockey as seriously these days, but dangerous down the middle to the net, and not scared of a bit of aggression on the ice.
Zanzee Pielak-Jones. A nuggetty defender, reliable clearing the puck, and able to take the puck up, watch for her good defense on the top players.
Darcy Knyvett. Arrived to us fresh this year from inline hockey, Darcy’s big on commitment – he’ll put himself full stretch on the ice on defense, and he can surprise with shots from the point as well.
[b:36qwrdsp]SK8[/b:36qwrdsp]
This is a kid formed largely from the Dunedin Juniors team, some of whom got a big lesson last weekend when Auckland whooped their butts at nationals. They’ll be back and looking for a bit more success in Dunedin, and there’s a couple of players added to their ranks to stiffen them up a little.
Players to watch:
James van Leeuwen. A talented player all-round, and great ability taking the puck up the ice. Watch for his big slapshot from the red line. It travels.
Paris Heyd. In from the backblocks, Paris is looking like a player to watch for the future. Expect to see more of him in the Stampede ranks, and watch for his good goal-scoring.
Tony Pasco. Big in front of the net, Tony’s rarely beaten down low, and teams are going to have to remember to go up high to get it over his pads.
Ryan Wick. Ryan’s a hard-working player, but his temper has gotten him into trouble before, and the DIHL referees won’t take any of that. If he stays out of the box, watch for him to score off the rebound.
[b:36qwrdsp]Stars[/b:36qwrdsp]
A mixture of John McGlashan Old boys, too good to play in the B grade, and other random additions to make them up to full strength. There’s a bit of an international flavour to the team, with a couple of international students showing how it’s done ‘stateside’.
Players to watch:
Aaron Benda. Or as he’s known, ‘Minnesotta Guy’. Just arrived this semester, Aaron a solid player, having played back home all the way through school, with a nice shot and good defense.
Simon Christos. Simon’s again playing for Stampede this year, and his puck-handling and speed will have the opposition on the back foot.
Pete Mannerswood. Pete’s a JM’s student, but looked impressive with a bunch of a goals in the Autumn DIHL earlier this year. Watch for him to take it to the net.
[b:36qwrdsp]Ducks[/b:36qwrdsp]
The Ducks have been cobbled together with what’s left, but don’t let their bitsy nature fool you, there’s real talent, and the Ducks won the Autumn DIHL, so there’s a challenge to uphold for the name, and plenty of players to be wary of.
Players to watch:
Mike Sam. Bolstering the ranks, fast forward Mike Sam will take it up and set it up every time. He’s got Ice Blacks experience, and the team will be looking for his experience on the bench as well.
Graham Phipps-Black. The older half of a father-son duo in the team, Graham lacks pace, but he’s a deceptively good puck-handler, and his shot often finds the back of the net, frustrating other teams.
Megan Gilchrist. Megan’s been a good hockey player for a while now, but 2006 has seen her step forward another couple of notches and really play some good hockey. She’s tall, and quite happy to push the boys around on the ice. She’s dangerous in the slot and hard to get past on defense.
Duncan Sykes. Duncan’s stepped up to play in Stampede this year, and he’s got really good defense, and he cuts up the ice and can take the puck from goal line to goal line and score. Teams will be looking to exploit a weakness of getting caught mucking around with the puck in his own zone.
Coming soon – Kyle’s picks for week 1.
Hmm, looks like I’ll need to do some pics for the B-grade then! Those high school teams could be a bit tricky to pick as I’m not sure who some of their players are, but I’ll see what I can come up with.
B-grade pics coming soon!
We should be clear from the outset, that the A grade is a ‘graded’ competition. Each player has a grade associated with them, and teams are made up so that they all basically have the same average grade. Well that’s the theory, the reality is that giving someone a number out of ten, doesn’t necessarily work out that well on the ice. People have good days, and bad days, and any system of assigning numbers to players is pretty rough and ready.
Game 1: Phantoms vs Stars: Starting off the season, the Phantoms will pit themselves against the Stars. Both teams will be looking to start off the competition with a win, and get in place good lines and systems. Phantoms are probably the most used to each other, as the team is similar to the one that played in the recent A grade competition. Stars have got some real talent though, and Simon Christos is as likely to try and score by himself as using his team mates. First game will be a bit loose, my picks: Phantoms 4-3.
Game 2: Ducks vs SK8: Following right along, Ducks and SK8 will be stepping up. The SK8 team is similar to the one that just played in the A grade competition, and they started off well there, but faded in the finish to miss out on the final. James van Leeuwen should tighten them up a bit, but the Ducks are a solid team, with Duncan and Richard Sykes, and Mike Sam. I’m picking a tight game, not so many goals, taken out by the Ducks 3-1.
[b:o6p8mmr1]B Grade[/b:o6p8mmr1]
Wednesday kicks off the first ever B grade DIHL competition. Don’t let the B fool you, there’s some good players here, a number of whom are playing up into the A grade, and a bunch who should do likewise next year. B grades stacked with a bunch of pre-formed teams – two based around the Sunday beginners session, which has been going well all year, and three formed from high schools – Kings, OBHS, and John McGlashan. There’s going to be a bit of feeling between the teams, and it’s looking like a good competition.
Thing to watch in the B grade, is the goalies. A good goalie can make all the difference in this grade, as often there’s a lot of shots, and if a goalie can get most of them, they’ll be giving their team a great chance. Goalies to watch – Marc Dudley in the Beasts, who’s converted from field hockey this year, and who has a glove that any A grade goalie would be proud of, and Rebecca Brassett, who played for the Beasts last year in the DIHL, and returns to stand between the posts for the Bullfrogs. Also Larry Wheeler, who will be sharing goal time with Devin Williams for the Bears. Larry’s about as experienced in goal as I am at flower arranging, but he’s a really good player out on the ice, so if he figures out where to put his hands and the pads, he might be seeing a shutout or two.
Game 1: Beasts vs Kings: Kings fronted up bravely in the first DIHL this year, but took a bit of a hammering some games. The playing field has been leveled for them in the B grade, and they’ll be looking to make an impact on the first night. Beasts is largely made up of beginners in the sport, but Jack Li is playing in both grades, so look for him to put some heat on the Kings goalie, as will Rob Owens. Beasts to take it out, 5-2.
Game 2: Bullfrogs vs Bears: Both these teams are a bit hacked together – the Bullfrogs from some beginners, and some kids from Taieri High School, and the Bears from everyone left over at the end of the registrations. Watch out for the father-son pairings in the Bears – Peewee Ben Roth to skate all around his father Paul after a big year scoring a stack of goals for his team, and Geordie Wheeler to show father Larry Wheeler just how it’s done out on the ice. Bullfrogs might be in trouble as there’s some real beginners in this team, and they’ll need old hands Ryan Hellyer and Gina Bosselman, who’s come out of a long retirement for the DIHL, to step up and show them how it’s done. Can’t go past the Bears, the biggest team in the league however, 5-3.
Game 3: OBHS vs John McGlashan: This might be a bit of a grudge match, as both these teams have just recently finished a high schools competition. There’s a lot of names I don’t recognise here, but JMs has a proud history in ice hockey, and OBs will struggle to top them I think. JMs to take it 4-3.
Off ice. It’s the first week. So yup, duties are going to be messy. We’re getting serious about goal judging this DIHL though, so let’s sort it out people. Big question – referees. Will there be any? Watch this space!
Um I don’t think I am in the ducks kyle
Here goes …
Ryan’s B-grade picks – 1st Game Round Robin Spring 2006
Beasts vs Kings
Kings took a beating in the DIHL last time, but the only time they won last season was against the Beasts, so history is definitely on their side. Having said that, this is the B-grade and both teams have had to prune off their best players and the Beasts have been doing some serious recruitment in the off-season, including Mark Hareb and Andy Noble from the undefeated Ducks team (Autumn 2006 DIHL), Canadian Jason Sedgwick and their new field hockey convert, goalie Mark Dudley who’s been stunning everyone with how quickly he’s picked up the sport. Interestingly, another one of the Beasts crew is Mike Mitchell who is infact a Kings High schools student, so there will likely be some rivalvry there, with Kings not wanting to be beaten by one of their school mates. The Beasts are the only team to have started pre-season training for the DIHL, they beat the Dunedin midgets twice and lost and won games against the Dunedin Womens team.
My pick 3 – 1 to the Beasts. The Beasts just have far too much experience and muscle for Kings, the Beasts are looking like favourites for the league at this stage.
Bears vs Bullfrogs
These are two entirely new teams. They’re in no way related to previous DIHL teams, despite the names. The Bears have the massively experienced Larry Wheeler, but he’s playing in goal, so we’ll have to see how quickly he can pick the new position up. Paul Roth is moving from rink side advisor/critic to actually playing, a move which is nice to see after all his efforts in helping hockey in Dunedin over the years. The Bears don’t have any stars to carry their team, but they also don’t have many total beginners so should be fairly consistent and not let too many in goals in, they may be lacking in scoring though.
The Bullfrogs are the product of Clare Sharpin’s hard work, cobbled together out of the beginners session, plus some Tairei high recruits, they’re lacking depth, but not the will to win! There’s quite a few total beginners on the team, but Ryan Hellyer (that’s me!) will hopefully help out and super star veteran Gina Bosselman has been brought out of retirement to bolster the ranks. Player to watch on the Bullfrogs – Keith Dickson, he’s been looking mean and lean on figure skates lately and may pull a few surprises out of the bag. Joss van Leeuwen is an unknown, the youngest member of van Leeuwen clan in the DIHL, but with an amazing family pedigree in hockey he’ll be eagerly watched by those who have seen is Dad and uncles carving up in the A-grade.
My pick, 2 – 2 draw
John McGlashan vs OBHS
OBHS have been looking weak all season long in the schools competition and John McG’s the opposite, so things aren’t looking good for OBHS. To top that off, Johnnies have bolstered their ranks with teacher John Bradfield and a few of their schools A-grade players. John McGlashan may be the Beasts strongest opposition this season.
My pick 4 – 1 to John McGlashan.
Stats for Round One of the DIHL A-grade now available for download. Thanks to Joyce Miller for preparing them for us
” title=”Smiley” />http://www.dunedinicehockey.hellyer.kiwi/docum … ring06.pdf
Hopefully the B-grade stats will coming shortly.
Ryan,
[quote:3r3i0xg5]Game 1: Phantoms vs Stars: First game will be a bit loose, my picks: Phantoms 4-3.[/quote:3r3i0xg5]
Well I’ve picked the result, and one half of the scoreboard right, but Phantoms step up and knock up a pile of goals, 7 in all. King and Adrian van Leeuwen get hat tricks, and Matthews picks up a goal and two assists (3 points in the first night! stoked!). Phantoms keep the shots down to 12 on goalie Nick Metzger, while putting 27 on Bryant. Stars defense will be disappointed with that. Good work from Peter Lamb to pick up a double for the Stars however.
[quote:3r3i0xg5]Game 2: Ducks vs SK8: I’m picking a tight game, not so many goals, taken out by the Ducks 3-1.[/quote:3r3i0xg5]
Interesting. Ducks struggle against SK8, with Tony Pasco only letting in 1 off 15, and despite racking up 10 penalty minutes, SK8 takes it out 4-1. A hat trick to James van Leeuwen sees them through. There’s some good Ducks players in that line up, and they’ll be looking to do better than a solitary unassisted goal to Gilchrist.
That SK8 vs Ducks score line is surprising. From their team lineups on the night I definitely would have picked the Ducks, not SK8 who were missing a decent wack of their good players. Hopefully they’ll do better next week.
Ryan,Ding ding! Round two! That’s right. Get that bikini-clad woman off the ice with the sign. Play some hockey.
[b:2xsvjnks]A Grade[/b:2xsvjnks]
SK8 vs Phantoms: Both winners in round one, this is a big game, with the winner well on the way to securing a finals berth. Phantoms thrived last week with the steadying influence of Steve Jackson at the back, where he played a massive role. This enabled the forwards to cut up the ice, putting 7 in the back of the net. They’ll be looking to keep on trucking. SK8 were without a number of players last week, who all had other commitments, but they’ll be expecting them back and making up some serious numbers. Watch for James van Leeuwen on defense, firing some big shots from point and cutting up the ice when he gets the chance. Phantoms are going to have to stick to him hard, and chase him if they want to win. My pick: Phantoms to take it, 4-2. Jackson, Smith, A. van Leeuwen, and King to net for Phantoms, J. van Leeuwen and Heyd to net for SK8.
Stars vs Ducks: Both teams will be disappointed with last week’s effort – Stars with some missing defense, letting the Phantoms through for too many good shots on their goaltender, Ducks with an offense that had a bunch of shots, but only got one through the SK8 goaltender. Ducks have definitely got the players to rack it up – Sam, the Sykes brothers, and Gilchrist can all score goals. Stars had some good offense last week, but let too many Phantoms players right up the middle – they’ll need to shut this down with some bigger commitment. My pick: Ducks to take it out, 3-2. Sam, D. Sykes to net for Ducks, Lamb and Benda to net for Stars. Blackett to have a big last period in goal to see his team through.
[b:2xsvjnks]B Grade[/b:2xsvjnks]
Kings vs Bears: Both teams struggled last week I understand, but I’m just waiting for the Bears to click. Once this mish-mash team starts to get the passing and defense going, I think they’ll be a threat. Kings have played here before, and they’re a team that will probably struggle to make the finals, but they’re sure to pull down a couple of teams who think they’re easy beats. I think that might be this week, with Kings to take it 5-3.
OBHS vs Beasts: Beasts came into the competition looking like the class outfit, and that is probably set to continue, as goalie Marc is only get better once he gets used to sliding around on the ice rather than the field hockey pitch. Watch for manager Mark on forward as well, his game is moving along nicely and he might be looking for an A grade berth next year. OBHS come in with a good coach, and he’ll be looking to put some heat on the Beasts, but they’ll fall short. Final score, 4 – 1.
John McGlashan vs Bullfrogs: Bullfrogs had a good week last time, with a couple of their goal scorers making hay with the Bears. John McGlashan might be a different prospect however, as rookie goaltender Rhys Leask is building up a heap of experience, culminating in him playing for Southern Region at nationals, so the shots won’t just go in as easy this week. I’m picking this to be close, with both teams struggling to score to much, so I’m calling it a draw, at 2-2.
Hmm, that Bullfrogs vs John McGlashan score was a bit off the mark. 13 – 1. Unfortunately to John McGlashan
” title=”Sad” />Kudos to Justin Biggs for scoring our one and only goal though.
Stats for the B-grade from last week should be up in the next hour or so.
Ryan,
Holy crap. You guys got cleaned up.
Be interesting to see Johnnies play Beasts then, see who’s tops.
Yeah, 7-0 after the first period was a little gutting.
Some quick advice to our newbies on defense seemed to help a lot for the next two periods but Jonnies still sunk an extra 5 goals in the next two periods.
More defense required in the future! I started playing back a bit during the last two periods which helped somewhat, but left us a little short on any attacking ability so all up a little awkward really. I felt like a bit of a marked man after the first period, I’d grab the puck and make a run for the goal on my own and next thing I had 3 of our opposition hacking at my feet trying to get the puck and since I’d generally just outrun my own team who still hadn’t made it to the blue line I had noone to pass to, so that route to scoring goals turned out to be a little futile (will know better for next time).
Good solid defense by John McGlashan though and some solid passing and team work, nice breakouts, passes right infront of our goalie followed by quick snap shots into our net were all quite impressive. We really didn’t have much of a reply for it really, I never expected them to be quite as well drilled as they were. They didn’t seem to have any star players who were scoring at will either, most of their goals were scored from good tactics, not just skating through us willy nilly.
They also had a lot more speed than us, our defense would be nicely in position on the blue line where they should be, but our opposition could skate so much faster than us that 3 on zero breakouts were a tad more common than we’d like. Even when our defense were hanging back at the red line in the second and third periods they still kept breaking past with their speed. Devin was definitely left high and dry on a decent number of those goals that went past him.
Devin incidentally is now our official goalie as Becky is unfortunately out for the rest of the season – ligament damage or something I think.
Ryan,
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