Game Result Saturday, 26 April

Bartercard Gold Coast Blue Tongues V Sydney Ice Dogs saw the Blue Tongues go down in their first game of the year 6-1.

Unfortunately, the Blue Tongues star recruit, Brad Smulders did not receive his international clearance in time to partake in the first game. No Brad Smulders and 3 local players unavailable in the first trip, left the Blue Tongues with only 10 skaters for the game. None the less Coach, Kevin Sands, was very happy with the team's performance given the circumstances.

Sands said, "I was very impressed with the way the team played together, and there is no doubt the combination of the young players being a year more experienced, the strength of the defense, and the offense of the new imports  we will be very competitive this year."

At the end of the first period the Blue Tongues were down 1-0, and faced a very physical game from the Ice Dogs in the first period. Interestingly enough the players who were physical for the Ice Dogs in this game, wanted no part of the physical activity in the same corresponding match last year when the Blue Tongues had renowned enforcers on board.

The Blue Tongues breaking period was the second, with the Ice Dogs scoring 3 unanswered goals. The second period could have been a different result had the three goal posts hit by Blue Tongue players turned into goals. Henrik Ivarsson did score the Blue Tongues only goal in this period, and this was a reward for an excellent debut game from the Swedish import.

In the third period the Blue Tongues still worked hard to the end of the game, yet were simply undermaned for the game.

Overnight, clearance has come through from Brad Smulders Dutch team, Nijmegen Devils, and the Blue Tongues will certainly be better equipped to take on the Sydney Bears tonight in Penrith at 5.00PM.