Up and Coming Blue Tongue Eric Sewell Done Well!!

GOLD-GOLD-GOLD & Eric Sewell in Top 5 Scoring for Australia!!

Ice Hockey Australia’s 2009 National Youth Team-2009 took Gold Medal honors at the IIHF 2009 World Division III Group A Championship in Chinese Taipei.

After starting sluggishly with a boisterous capacity crowd and 2 goals up for Taipei after the first period, Australia launched 7 unanswered goals for the remainder of the game with 73 shots for versus 26 against. Michael Smart (WA) was in the net for Australia.

Wehebe Darge (SA) hit the twine fours times for Australia and took Best Forward for the Championship and Australia’s MVP honors with 17 goals and 10 assists for a total of 27 points. Joel McFadden (NSW) with 15 points, Billy Cliff with 13 points, Steve Best (SA) and Eric Sewell (QLD) with 11 points each were top five points players for the Championship.

Australia was a dominant force throughout the Championship superior puck control and positional play as compared to the other teams. Finding the net more often on their numerous scoring opportunities will easily place Australia at a much better than expected ranking in Division II next year.

A number of first time National Youth Team rookie players now have a taste of Gold for the first time and will be the basis for formidable strength for Australia’s team in the 2010 Division II Championships.

Job well done by the players and team officials.

See the IIHF Championship website for all Championship statistics.