|
The Sydney Ice Dogs are a semi-professional ice hockey team in the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). The team was founded in 2002 as the Western Sydney Ice Dogs but changed its name to Sydney Ice Dogs in 2009. The club plays its home games at the Liverpool Catholic Club’s ice rink in New South Wales, a suburb of south-western Sydney. ==History== The Ice Dogs (along with the Melbourne Ice and Newcastle North Stars) were part of a three-team expansion to the AIHL in 2002, joining the original teams Adelaide Avalanche (who disbanded in 2008), Canberra Knights and Sydney Bears. Ice hockey in Western Sydney goes back to 1981, when the Blacktown Flyers were a foundation member of the New South Wales Superleague. While lasting for thirteen seasons, this league struggled to gain stability and folded, to be reborn in 1994 as the ECSL, however it too would be disbanded in 2000 with Western Sydney having no representative in the newly formed AIHL. The region returned to the national ice hockey map in 2002 when the Ice Dogs joined the AIHL. John Wilson, owner of the Blacktown Ice arena funded the team and Anthony Wilson (his son) captained, managed and recruited for the team. The teams' first season was a success despite missing the semi-finals, finishing third out of six teams. It was not enough to make the finals, however, as a four-team playoff series would not be introduced until the 2003 season. Backing up their strong poerformance in 2002 the Ice Dogs again finished third in 2003. They did however go one step better as they reached the Goodall Cup final by defeating the second-placed Adelaide Avalanche. The Ice Dogs went down in the championship match, losing 4-1 to Newcastle. The ice Dogs would have their revenge in 2004, as both teams again squared off for the Goodall Cup and the Ice Dogs won 3-1 on the back of instrumental performances by 18-year-old goaltender Gabriel Robledo and star import players John Heinen and Martin Jesk. A healthy rivalry between the Ice Dogs and the North Stars arose from these two back to back championship games. At the start of the 2009 season the team was renamed to "Sydney Ice Dogs", dropping the Western part of the title. The club rebranding coincided with the complete redesign and re-launch of the club's website early in the 2009 season. Updated news and feature articles were a regular offering via the dedicated blog named, "Give a Dog a Blog". In 2010, the website promises of a new section for video highlights of home games tentatively named 'Ice Dogs TV'. On 24 April 2014 the Sydney Ice Dogs head coach Ron Kuprowsky and his assistants Colin Downie and Brad Andrlon had resigned from their positions. The club appointed Dion Dunwoodie as interim head coach with Mark Page and Anthony Wilson as his assistants. On 9 May 2014 the Ice Dogs signed Andrew Petrie as their new head coach to replace the departed Ron Kuprowsky. However following the conclusion of the 2014 AIHL season Andrew left his position as head coach of the Ice Dogs with one year remaining on his contract to take up the head coach position at AIHL and NSW rival club Newcastle North Stars. 9 February 2015, the Ice Dogs via the AIHL announced the club had opted to play two home matches for the 2015 AIHL season against the CBR Brave in Canberra as opposed to Liverpool, Sydney. Both matches to occur in August and travel arrangements for Ice Dogs fans would be made due to the scheduling changes. 28 February 2015, the Sydney Ice Dogs announced the appointment of Danish coach Anders Jespersen as their new head coach for the 2015 AIHL season. Anders linked up with the Ice Dogs following his spell as head coach of the Oman national team. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sydney Ice Dogs」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|