Yeah that’s right Stefan. I know you’ve been sitting there at the shop hitting refresh all afternoon waiting for ’em!

It’s finals week. Yes, 7 weeks of competition, bits of paper, money, gear, referees, every second of ice time, penalties, goals, face offs, comes down to two games. SK8 takes on the Phantoms tonight (with Channel 9 there filming it for their news!). Beasts take on John McGlashan tomorrow. For both grades, the teams that have been looking the business all DIHL are playing each other for the trophy. Let’s pause a moment and check out the teams.

Phantoms

Phantoms started with a hiss and a roar, two big victories, but also a 3-0 loss to SK8 first time around when they just couldn’t find the back of the net. Since then a couple of draws and a tight victory last week has seen them skate into the finals in second place on eight points. Last time they played SK8 it was a 2-2 draw, but heartbreakingly close to being a Phantoms victory with the puck finding the back of the SK8 net just as the buzzer went.

Phantoms have been hit hard by a loss of players. Sam Smith only turned up for one game, so they’ve been short since then. Ryan Hellyer’s out with a broken ankle, and after last week they’ve lost top player Steve Jackson and hard working Kim Hellyer, who are out of the country. No commitment I tell ya. Rostered goalie Nick Metzger has been absent more than he’s been present, and tonight they’ll have backup goalie Mark Dudley between the sticks for them. They’ll be well short on two lines however, and are probably looking at eight plus goalie for the final.

On the positive side of the ledger, they’re looking to draft in Larry Wheeler tonight just so that they have some subs. Larry’s getting on a little, but he’s a solid defender, and they’ll be needing him as Steve Jackson leaves a big hole in their defensive line. And a couple of players have been racking up some big points so far this DIHL. Stefan King has 9 goals and 2 assists, Brent Hodge has 8 goals and 5 assists (top point scorer for the DIHL, despite missing a couple of games). Look for the two of them to continue to work hard on the same line, causing all sorts of problems for the defense, and watch out for Hodge’s fake to get around a defender, it’s really good.

Key for the Phantoms, picking up their defense, which looked weak against the Sykes brothers last week, and shutting down those SK8 players and stopping them getting to the Phantoms goalie. Mark Dudley is coming along in leaps and bounds, but he’s only been playing goal on ice for a few months now, so Phantoms need to keep the shots far out, to the sides, and stop the SK8 players getting through to shoot at the goalie.

SK8

SK8 managed to kick clear of Phantoms last week with a draw against the Stars. SK8 have looked dangerous all competition, with a solid base made out of the Dunedin Juniors team, but with a couple of senior players stacked on top to harden them up. There’s no big weak points in this team, they’re fairly solid all the way through. The star undoubtably is James van Leeuwen, on 8 goals and 2 assists in the competition so far, he’s a complete player. Big slap shot from the blue line, strong defense, and causes all sorts of problems on the rush taking it to the net. Phantoms are going to have to work hard to shut him down and keep down his shots, because otherwise he will score.

There’s other dangerous players in the lineup however. Ryan Wick is fairly aggressive, but does good work in front of the net, putting away rebounds. Paris Hey and Liam and Jesse Roth are all dangerous junior players, probably only weakened by their lack of a passing game. And SK8 will have Tony Pasco in net, who’s been putting up the best numbers all DIHL, yet to lose a game. He’s really good down low on the pads, and Phantoms are going to have to put on heaps of good shots to rack up big numbers of goals.

Key for SK8. Phantoms can probably field the best forward line in the competition, with Hodge, King, and A. van Leeuwen all big goal scorers. They’re all capable of scoring 1 on 1 on the goalie, or working together and notching up assists to go with their goals. If SK8 can keep their shots down, and stop the breakaways, then they’re in with a big shot at this.

Kyle’s pick. I think this game is going to go to the wire, it’ll be tied up 3-3 at the end of regulation, and then I’m picking Phantoms to take it in extra time, shortly after the puck drops. Hodge to get the gamewinner, but King, van Leeuwen, and Honore to score the early goals. For SK8 van Leewen, Wick, and Hey to net.

John McGlashan

Johnnies have looked the form team of the B grade competition since the get-go, including a 3-1 victory over the Beasts in the round-robin. Johnnies have some good players in their lineup, including what looks like the two top goal scorers in the competition (Robert McLean, 11 goals after four rounds, Mark Kliegl, 9 goals after four rounds). The 3-1 victory over Beasts was the closest that anyone has come to toppling them, and they’re certainly coming into Wednesday as the favourites. There’s weaknesses though. Their goalie has never really been tested by more than a dozen shots in a game, and if Beasts put up pressure on net, it’ll be interesting to see how many go in.

Beasts

Beasts are a solid team, with a big lineup, and some players there that can put the puck in the back of the net. Mitchell, Li, Sedgwick are all players capable of playing A grade, and they’ll really be wanting to use their speed and skills to put good shots on the Johnnies goalie, work hard for rebounds, and try and rack up some points. Probably their real strength though is their goalie. Mark Dudley comes to us from field hockey, and he’s still making the transition, but learning fast. He’s got a top glove, and he’s gotten better as the competition has progressed. He’s playing for two teams in the A grade competition on Tuesday night as the backup goalie, and Beasts will be looking for him to keep out Johnnies as much as possible. Besides, the 3-1 loss in the round robin, two of those goals were right near the end of the game, so it was all tied up after 40 minutes.

Kyle’s pick. I’m sticking with the favourites, but close. 4-3 by the final whistle to Johnnies.

Other Games

Those aren’t the only two games going on this week, just the only game in which a trophy is being given out.

At 8pm the Ducks take on the Stars in the playoff for 3-4 in the A grade. Neither have had the happiest season this DIHL, Stars have 2 losses and 4 draws (surely a record!), and Ducks have 1 win, 4 losses, 1 draw. Stars will be pumping for a win – a couple of well-placed goals in those drawn games would have seen them playing in the final. And Ducks certainly have the talent, but while they’ve been playing well as a team, it hasn’t seemed to work out for them this season. Kyle’s pick: Stars to grab it, 4-3.

And in the B Grade, at 6pm Bullfrogs take on the Bears, in what should be a friendly game. Bears have come close a couple of times this DIHL, but haven’t really had it to mix it up with the big boys. Bullfrogs are probably going to struggle unless they find a replacement for Hellyer. I’m picking Bears to get a second win, 4-2.

OBHS take on Kings, who are backing up from what sounded like a pretty rough game last week, after a bit of a scrap broke out after the final whistle. OBHS haven’t had a happy season at all, and I’m picking that to continue to Kings roll over on them a bit, taking it 6-1.

Best of luck everyone.

Kyle
Phantoms

[quote:3c064ags]Phantoms vs Ducks: Kyle pick: Phantoms to take it 3-2, van Leeuwan and Hodge to score for Phantoms, Gilchrist and D. Sykes for Ducks.[/quote:3c064ags]

Roll on the high scores! 52 shots in total in the game, 13 finding the back of the net, 7-6 to Phantoms, who hold tight after a couple of late Duck goals put some real heat on. Hodge gets a hat trick, King a double, and Honore murders another open net, but picks up two assists in compensation. D. Sykes causes a heap of trouble for the Phantoms goalie (Dudley with Metzger gone for the tournament) and picks up four.

[quote:3c064ags]SK8 vs Stars: Kyle’s pick: I’m going for an upset, Stars to take it 4-3, Lamb to get a double, including the game winner, Roth the elder and van Leeuwen to net for SK8. Big game by Bryant to keep SK8 out in the end.[/quote:3c064ags]

3-3. Stars really are going for the record number of drawn games! If they’d scored four more goals, one in each of the past four games, they’d be leading the competition! Lamb gets a goal, Benda picks up two, Lang and Roth the younger net for SK8. Only 31 shots in this game, Pasco not up to his normal standards, letting in 3/12.

So there endeth the round robin for the big boys. Next week the finals, starting an hour late. Stars take on Ducks for 3-4 at 8pm, Phantoms and SK8 skate at 9:10 in front of Channel 9 cameras for the trophy.

Ryan,

The web page (temptingly) says that rounds 5 and 6 A grade stats are available. And yet the file is just the old round four pdf file.

Oooh! Inter-team snarkiness. And on the day of a big semi-final too. It’s all falling apart in beast-land.

We’re in the final stretch, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. A grade is in the final week of round-robin, but the final spots have already been decided by the points table. B grade are already onto the semis, and the heat will be on to see who makes it through to the finals.

[b:1cx9wd1x]A Grade[/b:1cx9wd1x]

Phantoms vs Ducks: Everyone came off a draw last week, so things have really evened up in the competition. Phantoms know they’re going to be facing SK8 in the final next week, but will be looking to steady things nicely against the Ducks to get the roll on. Ducks will be hoping for a second victory, it hasn’t been the happy DIHL they’d been hoping for. SK8 again without regular goalie Nick Metzger, Mark Dudley filling in between the pipes, Hellyer out with a broken ankle from badminton. Kyle pick: Phantoms to take it 3-2, van Leeuwan and Hodge to score for Phantoms, Gilchrist and D. Sykes for Ducks.

SK8 vs Stars: SK8 are clear on top of the table, but they’ll be looking for one more win to make sure that first spot is theirs – currently they’re 2 points ahead of Phantoms, and 3 goals ahead on goal differential, so Phantoms would need to win, and pick up a four goal deficit for there to be any problems. Stars have been the eternal drawers in the competition, with 3 draws, no wins so far. They’ll be looking for a victory, just to see their names in lights. Kyle’s pick: I’m going for an upset, Stars to take it 4-3, Lamb to get a double, including the game winner, Roth the elder and van Leeuwen to net for SK8. Big game by Bryant to keep SK8 out in the end.

[b:1cx9wd1x]B Grade[/b:1cx9wd1x]

OBHS vs Bears: Both these teams are out of finals contention. OBHS pushed Kings hard last week, but fell one short, which means Bullfrogs sneak into the fourth spot. This game is technically the playoff for 5th and 6th. Neither team has had a happy season, but both will be looking to finish on a high note (they both have a friendly game against the losers of the semis next week). I’m picking OBHS to take it 4-2.

John McGlashan vs Bullfrogs: Bullfrogs are really up against it in the semis. Johnnies have been looking the business all season, including a big whalloping of Bullfrogs earlier on. Bullfrogs won’t be so bad this time around, but they’re already missing Hellyer, so they’ll continue to suffer. Kyle’s pick: Johnnies 6-2.

Beasts vs Kings: This might be a closer game, Kings are a bit of a dark horse in the competition, and thought they lost pretty well to Beasts first time around, I’m picking that they’ll come closer this time and put some heat on the Beasties. All the same, the Beasts are clearly ahead of the rest of the pack in 2nd place, and I’m going for 5-3 final score.

Off Ice: Helmets. My life of helmets.

Always good to get criticism from anonymous sources! Encourages people to continue to volunteer their time to organising hockey tournaments for you to play in, honest.

Anyway, in answer to your question – I’ve been asking the referees to enforce the helmet rule for several weeks now, and they said that they would do this, and we discussed how players could simply get legal helmets from the gear room if they didn’t have one available. There’s no ‘last week it was going to be let go’. Players were emailed after game three and reminded about helmet rules, and the referees were asked to chase up players during game four who still weren’t complying.

The referees hadn’t done this, so I approached them in the intermission and asked them to enforce the rule. I asked them to tell the other team of this, and said that I was happy for us to pause the game so that the people affected could go get helmets – a referees time out.

Anyway, the referees indicated that they weren’t going to tell the SK8 team (and as it turned out weren’t going to enforce the rule, but that’s another issue). So I went over the SK8 huddle and told James that I had asked the referees to enforce the wearing of visors. It wasn’t (and still isn’t) my preference for players to have minor penalties assessed against them, I just want players to be wearing proper safety equipment. If the referees weren’t going to give the other team time to do this, I wanted to give them the time to do so. Anyway, James and the SK8 team chose not to do anything about it, and the referees chose not to enforce it last week, so it’s a moot point.

As to why I’m pushing for the helmet rule to be enforced. There’s two reasons. I (along with other people) run a tournament in a sport in which people can get seriously hurt. Sometimes that’s just the nature of ice hockey. However I don’t want to see someone get a puck or a stick in the eye, when they should have been wearing a visor. Almost all the serious, permanent injuries which arise from hockey (affecting the brain, eyes etc) arise from hits in the area covered by the helmet and visor. Legs, shoulders, ribs etc, all heal fine. Eyes and brain often don’t. I would feel personally responsible for having run a tournament at which the players weren’t wearing the correct equipment, and they suffered a serious injury.

Secondly, the equipment rules under which we operate are there for good reason. They provide a framework (both national and international) at which other players, referees, tournament organisers, the Dunedin Ice Hockey Association, and the Dunedin Ice Rink can point and say ‘here is what is ‘safe’ for playing ice hockey’. This is the basis on which ice hockey players qualify for Accident Compensation, and the basis on which the various people and organisations listed above can be considered to have been acting responsibly.

A few years ago the organisers of a bike race in Christchurch faced criminal charges because they had failed to do enough to ensure the safety of participants in the sport – one of the riders was killed by an oncoming car. While the chances of something like that happening are pretty slim, the risk is still there. If someone suffered a serious injury during a game, and the crown pursued legal action against the club then the club would most likely have to close, and there just wouldn’t be any ice hockey in Dunedin. I don’t want to think about what would happen if they pursued action against an individual such as the referee or a tournament organiser. Players could also face problems getting ACC because they weren’t wearing the correct protective equipment for their sport, etc.

I’m not really sure how approaching James in the intermission and telling him that I’d asked the referees to enforce the visors, would in any way help us win the game. But y’know, whatever. I don’t really see it as an issue between the two teams, as I was continuing a discussion that I’ve been having with the head referee as coordinator of the A grade tournament. I understand there’s also a Star player who is non-compliant. When the referees decided not to do anything about it, I left it as an off-ice problem, and took it up with the head referee the next day.

I believe the referees are going to be stricter on the equipment rules from tonight onwards, so I’d recommend all players bring correct helmets, mouthguards etc.