The Bartercard Gold Coast Blue Tongues faced off against the Melbourne Ice in a double header this weekend at Iceland Bundall for the last home game weekend of the Blue Tongues 2011 season. Currently in fourth place on the AIHL ladder, the Blue Tongues were determined to skate away with as many points as they could from the crucial games being played this weekend.

On Saturday, the Blue Tongues' goaltender Luke Fiveash faced 36 shots on goal, and saved 33 of them. Melbourne's Jason Baclig (assisted by Austin McKenzie and Jacques Perrault) scored in the first period, and Joey Hughes (assisted by Jacques Perrault and Matt Armstrong) and Glen Mayer (assisted by Jason Baclig and Obi Aduba) scored in the second period.

The Blue Tongues, however, put 32 shots on Melbourne's Stu Denman, who saved 27. Blue Tongues goals were scored by Adam Geric (assisted by Dave Upton and Alex Hall) and Tobias Falk (assisted by Mike McRae) to give the Blue Tongues a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period. In the second, Tobias Falk scored 2 goals for his hatrick (first goal was assisted by Matt Amado and Mike McRae and the second goal was unassisted) to give the Blue Tongues a 4-3 lead going into the third period. With 24 seconds left in the game, Matt Amado (assisted by Tobias Falk and Mike McRae) scored the fifth and final goal to give the Blue Tongues a 5-3 victory.

The first period was infringement free, and only one penalty was called in the second period, which was a tripping infringement on Melbourne's Jacques Perrault. This penalty gave the Blue Tongues a man advantage which Tobias Falk capitalised on and scored his first goal of the second period. The third period also looked to be infringement free until the final 21 seconds of the game when Melbourne's Joey Hughes and Gold Coast's Tobias Falk were both sent to the dressing room for roughing. Tobias also had a holding penalty added on, while Joey landed an interference and a ten minute misconduct penalty.

Sunday's game, however, was a vastly different. The Blue Tongues once again had Luke Fiveash starting between the pipes, backing up from his victory the previous night. Melbourne decided to rest starting goaltender Stu Denman and start their backup goaltender, Andrew Crowther. The teams lined up for the opening puck drop to a packed out crowd at Bundall Iceland.

The Blue Tongues opened the scoring when Tobias Falk (assisted by Mike McRae and Matt Amado) scored less than a minute into the game on a very pretty goal. The Melbourne Ice evened up the score two minutes later when Lliam Webster (assisted by Matt Armstrong) lifted the puck past Fiveash while both teams were 4-on-4 due to penalties. A mere ten seconds later, Gold Coast's Matt Amado (assisted by Tobias Falk) gave the Blue Tongues a 2-1 lead. A minute and a half later Dave Upton gave the Blue Tongues a 3-1 lead (assisted by Adam Geric and Jack Connor).

The wheels fell off the proverbial cart from this point on, as penalties called on both teams combined with smart play by the Ice and questionable decision making by the Blue Tongues saw the 2 goal lead diminish. Melbourne's Obi Aduba (assisted by Joey Hughes and Jason Baclig) scored on the powerplay to close the gap to 3-2, then scored again a minute later when Jacques Perrault intercepted the puck in the neutral zone, passed to Joey Hughes on a breakaway, who passed to Obi Aduba to lift the puck past Fiveash to tie the game while shorthanded. With only 48 seconds left in the first period, Tommy Powell scored (assisted by Jason Baclig) to give the Ice a 4-3 lead at the end of the first period.

The rest of the game remained scoreless until Melbourne's Jason Baclig scored an empty-netter unassisted with 16 seconds left on the clock to give the Melbourne Ice a 5-3 victory. The game was riddled with game misconducts and roughing penalties called on both teams with a total of 194 penalty minutes handed our by ref Mark Obrien. The flow and demeanor of the game was vastly different to that of Saturday's game.

The Blue Tongues were 2 points ahead of Adelaide Adrenaline before tonight's game, and with Adelaide's loss in a shootout tonight to Newcastle Northstars, the Blue Tongues remain in fourth by 1 point. The team head south to Melbourne next weekend to once again face the Melbourne Ice at the Icehouse on August 13, 2011. Puckdrop is 5.45pm and the game should be streamed live online via http://www.livestream.com/melbourneice