Australian Ice Hockey League - Powered By esportsdesk.com

HELLYER LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Ice	4	4	0	12
Thunder	6	4	2	12
Bears	4	3	1	9
Mustangs	2	1	1	3
Ice Dogs	5	1	4	3

RURAK LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	OTW	OTL	PTS
Northstars	4	3	0	1	0	11
Lightning	6	3	3	0	0	9
Adrenaline	3	1	1	0	1	4
Brave	6	1	5	0	0	3
Rhinos	4	0	4	0	0	0

SCORING LEADERS

Jeremiah
Addison (PER)

Player	Points
Aiden Wagner (NNS)	18
Wehebe Darge (NNS)	15
francis Drolet (NNS)	15
Zane Jones (PER)	13

GOALIE LEADERS

N Novysedlak (BRE)

1.000

Goalie	SV%
Rhys Pelliccione (PER)	.950
Tatsunoshin Ishida (MIC)	.933
Leo Bertein (PER)	.905
Charles Smart (NNS)	.903

Building the rink at Perth Arena

Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - Submitted by Chris McRae

With hockey back in Perth for the first time since the game between the Perth Thunder and Melbourne Mustangs, theAIHL.com looks at the process of building a temporary rink at Perth Arena.

Walking into Perth Arena on June 20 was an incredible experience for all Australian hockey fans able to attend. Not only was Australia’s most isolated city getting the chance for AIHL teams to play in a big stadium and Perth hosting to some the big guns of North American Hockey in the final chapter of the 2015 Ice Hockey Classic, it was a chance to see a full scale, albeit temporary hockey rink bumped into Perth Arena.

The cool chill that hit as the Perth Thunder and Melbourne Mustangs entered the Arena for their curtain raiser and the sheer size of the venue in comparison to the Thunder’s home base at Perth Ice Arena added to the magnitude and excitement of the opportunity.

Creating an authentic Northern Hemisphere hockey experience for fans at the opposite end of the world is no easy feat. The 2015 Ice Hockey Classic tour took many months of logistical planning and management from Kerry Goulet along with Nine Lives and Stop Concussions. But just how was the Perth Arena transformed into a world class hockey rink and just how long did it take?

Dutch company Ice World International is the leading global supplier of temporary skating facilities and has laid 2,400,000sqm of mobile aluminium ice rink flooring since it was founded in 1992. The foldable-aluminium ice rinks for the 2015 USA vs Canada Ice Hockey Classic series have been supplied by Ice World and are complete with IIHF level dashboards.

The process began at Perth Arena on Monday June 15 and the process of installing the dasher system, player boxes, cooling equipment and filling the rink took approximately 48 hours. The process, from start to finish, can be completed in as little as 36 hours.

The system itself is what is known as a modulated ice floor system. The rink itself, folds out into aluminium elements that can be linked via rubber connections. The cooling equipment itself is mobile which allows for easy installation and deconstruction.

Ice World International Marketing and Communications Manager Anne Hoekstra commented on the thrill of bringing their portable ice rinks to the international stage.

“We love it,” she said. “We think it’s an excellent way to bring the ice hockey sport to the attention of so many people, who are entertained and maybe inspired to play themselves. As a supporter of skating in the Netherlands, we are happy to contribute to these series’.”

The quality of the rink itself was impressive, with local AIHL team the Perth Thunder receiving the chance to have a morning skate on the completed Arena rink on the Friday before their game against the Mustangs on Saturday night and the International exhibition. Thunder coach Dave Kenway said the morning session was good preparation for his team leading into Saturday’s game.

“The Friday skate was handy for us to get a feel for the ice,” Kenway said. “For a temporary rink, it was great. A little small perhaps, but the surface was very smooth and surprisingly fast.”

With a crowd of just over 2000 filing in the Arena doors by the commencement of the third period, it became one of, if not the largest crowd ever in attendance at an AIHL game. Kenway was thrilled with the overall experience.

“The venue is unreal,” he said. “To play at the Arena was a dream come true for myself and the Thunder boys and to be there on Saturday night was a real honour.”

For the Perth Thunder, playing in such a state of the art venue was a big step forward for the club.

“Huge thanks to Stan Scott (Thunder General Manager) for making it happen,” Kenway said. “The experience of playing there was unbelievable and we hope it can be done again sometime.”

SOCIALISE WITH US

Tweets

INSTAGRAM

Instagram is unavailable right now