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HELLYER LADDER

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

RURAK LADDER

Team	GP	W	L	PTS
Northstars	3	3	0	9
Lightning	5	2	3	6
Adrenaline	2	1	1	3
Brave	5	1	4	3
Rhinos	4	0	4	0

SCORING LEADERS

Jeremiah
Addison (PER)

Player	Points
Aiden Wagner (NNS)	16
Wehebe Darge (NNS)	12
francis Drolet (NNS)	12
Zane Jones (PER)	11

GOALIE LEADERS

N Novysedlak (BRE)

1.000

Goalie	SV%
Tatsunoshin Ishida (MIC)	.952
Rhys Pelliccione (PER)	.950
Leo Bertein (PER)	.937
Jeremy Friederich (ADE)	.912

Schlamp on being one-on-one with Gretzky

Friday, June 24, 2016 - Submitted by Bernard McNamara

Sydney Bears Captain Michael Schlamp got the chance of a lifetime this week, getting the opportunity to meet and speak with his hockey idol Wayne Gretzky.

Known as the world’s greatest ever hockey player and affectionately nicknamed the Great One, Gretzky is in Sydney to promote the Wayne Gretzky USA v Canada Ice Hockey Classic, which will be played on Saturday night at the Qudos Bank Arena.

On Thursday afternoon, Gretzky and his team took time out of their busy schedule to meet members of the local AIHL community, over lunch at the iconic Icebergs Café on Bondi Beach.

“It was unreal,” Schlamp said. “I had the chance to chat with him about Sydney as a city and he had a lot of questions about the local hockey scene and the AIHL.”

As a Canadian growing up in Saskatchewan, Schlamp had the opportunity to watch Gretzky play during the prime of his NHL career, a career that saw him hold or break an astonishing 60 NHL records over 20 seasons in the league.

“My favourite team growing up was the Edmonton Oilers,” Schlamp said. “My dad and my two brothers would drive five hours to watch the Oilers play in Winnipeg and then we’d turn around and drive five hours home.”

“Watching him play all those games, he just always knew what was going to happen before it happened,” Schlamp remembered. “I can remember watching him break the NHL all-time goal scoring record and watching him run over the ice. It was great.”

Gretzky has always shown a passion for growing the game of hockey and he is largely been credited for bringing hockey to the west coast of the America, when he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988.

“He was really interested in how the AIHL was run, how the teams are owned, what it was like for the players in the league, how often guys trained and how the travel schedule is managed,” Schlamp said.

Australian hockey fans will has an opportunity to see Gretzky this weekend lace up his skates for a special one-off event at the Qudos Bank Arena.

Before the USA v Canada Classic, Gretzky will captain one team and take on STOPCONCUSSIONS Foundation director and former European star Kerry Goulet in a four-on-four exhibition match. Players on each team will be made up of lucky competition winners, charity partners and event sponsors.

Unfortunately for Schlamp, the Great One’s schedule doesn’t line with the Sydney Bears schedule, as the Bears travels to Melbourne to face the league leading Melbourne Ice for a crucial double header this weekend.

“I wish we could get there this weekend, but unfortunately we’ve got the Melbourne road trip,” Schlamp said. “I was pretty disappointed that I won’t get to watch him play, but I got to have my picture taken with him today and have lunch with him which was the next best thing.”

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