The Recap - Goodall gets Icey!

"I love you Melbourne.... No really, I do!"

Well it has been a few days and I have come to grips that the Melbourne Ice are this years Goodall cup champions.

Congratulations to them on a fantastic season and well deserved championship.

Recapping the season of the Melbourne Ice really did lead me to some interesting facts and I probably should have paid more attention to them when predicting who would really win this tournament.

Starting the season, the Ice featured a deep and talented roster. One that wasn't solely relying on the performance of their imports, had a great mix of offense and defence and the advantage of playing in the premier rink in Australia in front of a loyal, vocal and large fan base.

(More after the jump!)

Recapping their regular season. There were some very notable performances from this Ice team. The Ice engaged in a streak that included a 9 - 2 win over the Dogs, followed by a 7 - 0 win over the Dogs again, a 6 - 1 victory over the Knights. That's 22 goals for and only 3 against in 3 games! The Ice also lost 3 games in a row between 20/06 and 27/06 only to follow that up with 4 consecutive victories. That's a fantastic rebound. The Ice also finished the regular season with 9 consecutive victories. Amazing.

 

When analysing the player stats from the team, you can really look up and down their lineup and see that this team won due to contributions from the entire roster. Leading scorer Jason Baclig lead the team with 45 points (22 games, 26g, 19a) followed closely by Liam Webster with 44 points (25 games, 23g, 21a). Other point-per-game performances from the team include Matt Armstrong (23 games, 14g, 27a), Kurt MacSweyn (21 games, 10g, 31a), Tommy Powell (24 games, 7g, 22a) and Adam Blanchette (20 games, 5g, 20a).

A well deserved congratulations should be directed to Stu Denman. Is there a more quiet contributor to his team than Denman? From what I can tell he is a player that is respected throughout the league, is a key cog in his team's success and one of the reasons Melbourne can put such a talented roster together as he's not an import and provides above average goaltending. After years of loyal service to his club, it's nice to see him get rewarded. 

Melbourne has 16 players scored a goal. 21 players scored a point. A total of 23 and 2 goalies suited up for the Ice during the regular season.

The Finals Recap:

"I feel shame"

With a regular season record against the Bears that included winning 3 of the 5 games and outscoring them 22 - 14, the Ice were certainly in a position to win their semi final game against the Bears. The final score (2 - 1) did not reflect the dominance that Melbourne displayed on the game. Melbourne we clearly in control of the game and although they trailed after two period by a goal, the momentum they sustained throughout the game allowed them to come away with the victory.

I'll bring you a recap of the other semi final game in picture format:

"S'allright boyzzz... I got your back"

"Arrrgggghhhhhh!!!!"

"LOL!"

"It's okay.... I'm still big in Iceland"

The Final:

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz a 6 - 4 win over Adelaide... exciting huh?

CONGRATULATIONS MELBOURNE!!