Bartercard Gold Coast Blue Tongue’s star forward Brad Smulders has signed a one-year contract extension, making him the team’s first import signing for the 2010 season.

Smulders, 25, scored an Australian Ice Hockey League season record 33 goals in 2009 on his way to being voted team and AIHL Most Valuable Player. He also racked up 43 assists for the Blue Tongues before the team was knocked out of the playoffs earlier this year.

Smulders’ return is unusual for an import hockey player, as most don’t return to Australia after one season. But he said his desire to win silverware for the Gold Coast drew him back.

"I wanted to come back to the Blue Tongues because I met a lot of great people and I feel the team has a great chance of winning the championship," Smulders said from Holland, where he is currently playing with the Nijmegen Devils. "The people surrounding the organisation deserve to win something and I would love to be part of that."

Smulders, a native of Canada, said he didn’t think twice when offered the chance to play another season for the Blue Tongues. He cited the fans, the beach and the atmosphere of playing in Australia as contributing factors to his contract extension.

"I really love playing in Australia because hockey is not as popular and fans get a little more excited because of it," Smulders said. "For myself, I just want to win and have fun and score a few goals doing it."

Now re-signed, Smulders hopes to resume his winning, fun-loving and goal-scoring ways in April, when the Blue Tongue’s start their new season.

]]> admin@succeed2k.com (Sam Hansen) frontpage Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:31:01 +0000 http://www.bluetongues.com.au/AIHL-News/aihl-finals-television-schedules.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BlueTongues/~3/ixXpoW5HiE0/aihl-2009-final-sets-now-available-for-pre-order.html http://www.bluetongues.com.au/AIHL-News/aihl-2009-final-sets-now-available-for-pre-order.html Hi everyone,

I hope that you were either able to attend the recent Finals series weekend or caught it on our live webcast which went out to over 300 viewers worldwide, our best audience to date. We were pleased to have been able to provide the service for free which allowed us to iron out some bugs for future live broadcasts. Thanks for all your patience and support!

Slapshot is pleased to be taking orders now for the 2009 Finals DVDs which can be purchased via our website: http://www.slapshot.com.au/shop/

Purchases ordered this week will ship the week of September 14th.

The 3-game/disc set comes with all the full-resolution versions of the games as they went to air (the Power Productions version is not included) at the price of $26.95 per set. We also have a combo deal for $39.95 for both the 2007 and 2008 Finals sets or a "Trifecta" deal of all of the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Finals' series for a massively good price of $54.95. (If you are located outside of Australia, please reply to this email with your location, and we will send you an invoice including correct shipping.)

As always, your purchases help support our small business and allow us to continue to bring ice hockey to your tv every year. Thanks for your generosity and tell your friends about how great Australian ice hockey is!

Cheers,
Mike Crowhurst
]]> admin@succeed2k.com (Mike Crowhurst) frontpage Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:09:02 +0000 http://www.bluetongues.com.au/AIHL-News/aihl-2009-final-sets-now-available-for-pre-order.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BlueTongues/~3/Vbb9GUIPij8/reigning-champs-burst-blue-tongues-fairytale-ending.html http://www.bluetongues.com.au/Game-Recaps-and-Summaries/reigning-champs-burst-blue-tongues-fairytale-ending.html  

The atmosphere was electric as the lights were turned off and the strobe lights came on for the entrance of the home team, Newcastle North Stars, and their opponents, the Gold Coast Blue Tongues. In front of a packed crowd, the Blue Tongues took to the ice to the cheers and horns blaring from their home contingents, who made the trip down from Queensland to witness the Blue Tongues historic first semi-final. As the teams lined up for the national anthem, the anticipation in the arena was palpable throughout the crowd.

On one end of the rink the hometown favourite, goaltender Matt Ezzy scraped up the ice in front of his crease in preparation of the showdown. On the other end, Blue Tongues goaltender Milan Novysedlak did the same. When the whistle blew and the first puck was dropped to start the game, the chanting from the crowd started – for both teams.

It was 16 seconds into the first period when the first penalty was called – on both teams. From that point, it was clear that both teams were there to win, and neither was going to give anything away to their opposition.

Second ranked Melbourne Ice faced off against third placed Adelaide Adrenaline in the first semi-final for the AIHL Championship trophy at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in Warners Bay on Saturday afternoon.

Adelaide won the first face off, taking possession early. Melbourne came back aggressively battling for the puck in a fast and furious struggle for dominance. With strong forechecking on both sides, it seemed imminent for an epic fight for lead early in the game. The Adrenaline were the first strike when import Sami Mantere, assisted by captain Greg Oddy, netted the puck past Ice goaltender Stu Denman 5 minutes and 49 seconds into the period. Exactly 2 minutes after their first goal, Jeremy Beirnes took the Adrenaline to a 2 goal lead over the scoreless Ice, assisted by James Keane and Luke Tilthorpe.

The Adrenaline continued on their offensive assault on embattled Stu Denman with Jeremy Beirnes scoring his second only 39 seconds into the period. Sami Mantere buried his second 26 seconds later, giving Adelaide a 4-0 lead and all but ending the hopes of the Melbourne Ice to come back.

"New Horizons"

Believe and we will Achieve!

With our first goal of reaching the the Final 4 of the National Championships in the AIHL this weekend achieved, the goal now is to bring home the hardware with 2 victories this weekend. We are aware as a team the goal of winning will be tough and the most important aspect going into and competing during the weekend will be to believe that we ,one, belong in the final 4 ( the Tongues first in their short history) and two, that we believe that if we play solid Tongue hockey over the weekend that we can indeed win the National Championship. This will be no easy task as in the Semi Final game on Saturday we face the Minor Premiers and Defending Champions the Newcastle Northstars. We as a team definitely respect the Northstars achievements, however in no way do we fear playing the Northstars. As a team we are looking no further than Saturday's game at this stage, and one in which we will have to play our best Tongues hockey to come away with the win.

The Northstars field a solid offence both up front and from the defence. They are led by # 44 Halverson and #4 Starke who represent two of the league's premier rushing defensemen, to go along with that they boast strong goaltending in #35 Ezzy. We as a team will not need to go into a defensive shell against the leagues top offence, only to play good team defence, securing the puck in the neutral zone and turning it into and converting on our offensive chances.

The boys practiced well on Tuesday and know we will have to play good Tongues hockey of intense, focused, passionate and disciplined hockey to achieve our goal of a victory in the Semi Final. From there we will then turn our focus to the Championship game on Sunday (The other Semi Final is between Melbourne and Adelaide).

Earlier this week Gold Coast Blue Tongues players helped lend a hand at the Southern Stars Hockey Club's "Come & Try" event; a program  that encourages young people to get a first look at the sport of Ice Hockey.   Blue Tongues' Brad Cassidy and Mark Paulsen were there to lend a hand and inspire motivation among the attendees.  The event was a success with 10 of the 12 participants committing to join.

Richard Wall, President of the Southern Stars Hockey Club stated in an email to Blue Tongues General Manager, Dave Emblem,

"I have uploaded some photo’s of the morning on our website here: http://www.starsicehockey.com.au/index.php?option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=76 and on our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Acacia-Ridge-Australia/Southern-Stars-Ice-Hockey/110869507401

I would also like to thank the Bluetongues and Dave Emblem for sending a few guys up to assist, not that the C&T participants knew what they were about but our guys sure did appreciate it and look up to them. Thank you very much guys."