The Melbourne Ice completed their 2011 AIHL regular season at the Icehouse Saturday night in front of another capacity crowd against the Sydney Ice Dogs.

The Ice went into the match eight points clear at the top, having locked up the minor premiership in recent weeks, and as a result, were presented with the H. Newman Reid Trophy for winning the minor premiership before the match by AIHL commissioner Ben Kiely.

The match was slightly down on the usual intensity; given it was a dead rubber for both sides; however it did not lack goals, precision passing or saves from both goalkeepers. Both teams enjoyed periods of control during the match.

The Ice Dogs led three goals to two at the end of the first period while the Ice got it back on level terms at four goals apiece after the second period. One goal to each side in the final period saw the game go to a shootout in which the Ice Dogs were the only team to score a goal to take two competition points.

The best players for the Ice were the usual suspects in Jason Baclig and Matt Armstrong, both scoring two goals. Jacques Perrault also had a strong game setting up a number of attacking runs with his passing and Kevin Darcy was solid at the back as usual.

Ice captain Vinnie Hughes commented after the match on the difficulty of getting up for the dead rubber, “It’s the end of the season and our position on the ladder cannot change, we are running juniors that we have been working with since day one of the pre season, moulding them to be the next leaders within our club”.

This result leaves the Ice with a final record for the season of eighteen wins, with only two losses in addition to three shootout wins and five shootout losses.

That earned them a total of sixty-five competition points, four points higher than the mark set by the Sydney Bears in 2008, the last season the competition comprised of eight teams.

In summing up the season, Hughes said, “We have had a great season and have a good team. This is the closest team we have ever had and this has helped us raise the bar from last year after setting the benchmark in the competition. We will need to raise the bar even further next year.”

Looking forward to next week’s semi-final, against the Adelaide Adrenaline, the Ice are confident without getting ahead of themselves. Hughes knows it will not be easy.

“It’s a one-off game next week, its do or die and anything can happen. We are confident; we know we are a good team. We are just worrying about our own game right now. We will have a large contingent of our fans here as well which will give us an advantage.”

Whatever the result next weekend, Hughes is looking forward to working on his golf game during the off-season. “It’s been a long season with pre season training starting in October. The league is getting bigger and better each year we will have to start training for 2012 at the same time, if not earlier to stay ahead of the pack.”

The Melbourne Ice are the defending Goodall Cup champions and they intend to keep it that way. It would be a brave person to bet against them in front of what’s sure to be a largely hometown crowd at the Icehouse for the conclusion to an exciting season.