Australia wins gold

At 7:20 last night, Melbourne Ice forward Lliam Webster collected a rebound to put the puck past Chinese goaltender Yu Yang. The goal gave Australia a 1 – 0 lead in the gold medal game of the World Division IIB championships in Newcastle. Two hours later, after shutting down the Chinese offence, Australia emerged victorious, the magic ending to a perfect tournament. The score. Still 1 - 0.

After defeating every team in their path, the Mighty Roos came into the  gold medal game favorites, especially with the home crowd advantage provided by the 1000+  sea of green and gold that filled the Newcastle rink.

The Australian victory means many things, showing not only the impact the development of the AIHL has on producing top level, internationally competitive players, the addition of a strong new coach, and the immeasurable support given by the Australian fans.

With this season representing 100 years of the IIHF, and more so 100 years of Ice Hockey in Australia, the victory could not have come at a better time for the sport in the country.

As well as the teams success, two Mighty Roo's received Individual honors from the tournaments directors. Newcastle goaltender Matt Ezzy was recognized as the tournaments best Goaltender and Avalanche forward Greg Oddy gained honors as Top Forward of the 6 team tournament.

With their victory, Australia gains promotion for the first time to Division I, the second highest tier of international play.

The Gold Coast Blue Tongues would like to congratulate the Australian Team on their success, including Blue Tongues Forward Mike Gough and former Captain Mark Rummukainen.

image from IHA.org.au