"New Horizons"

Believe and we will Achieve!

With our first goal of reaching the the Final 4 of the National Championships in the AIHL this weekend achieved, the goal now is to bring home the hardware with 2 victories this weekend. We are aware as a team the goal of winning will be tough and the most important aspect going into and competing during the weekend will be to believe that we ,one, belong in the final 4 ( the Tongues first in their short history) and two, that we believe that if we play solid Tongue hockey over the weekend that we can indeed win the National Championship. This will be no easy task as in the Semi Final game on Saturday we face the Minor Premiers and Defending Champions the Newcastle Northstars. We as a team definitely respect the Northstars achievements, however in no way do we fear playing the Northstars. As a team we are looking no further than Saturday's game at this stage, and one in which we will have to play our best Tongues hockey to come away with the win.

The Northstars field a solid offence both up front and from the defence. They are led by # 44 Halverson and #4 Starke who represent two of the league's premier rushing defensemen, to go along with that they boast strong goaltending in #35 Ezzy. We as a team will not need to go into a defensive shell against the leagues top offence, only to play good team defence, securing the puck in the neutral zone and turning it into and converting on our offensive chances.

The boys practiced well on Tuesday and know we will have to play good Tongues hockey of intense, focused, passionate and disciplined hockey to achieve our goal of a victory in the Semi Final. From there we will then turn our focus to the Championship game on Sunday (The other Semi Final is between Melbourne and Adelaide).

The team that will be heading to Newcastle is as follows:

Goal

#1 - Milan Novysedlak, Milan will get the start in the Semi Final against Newcastle and his experience and puck handling skills will be on display in the leagues only glassed rink.

#30 - Luke Fiveash, Luke who boasts the leagues best goals against average (2.97) for starting goaltenders will back up Milan on Saturday.  

#1 - CJ Anderson, CJ will be ready if called upon.

#1 - Mark Paulson, Mark will be ready if called upon.

Defence

#5 - Ben Spillane, Ben needs to play simple disciplined defensive hockey this weekend, his size will be a factor.

#8 - Cam Trew, Cam is playing his best hockey of the season and like Ben needs to play simple defensive hockey to be successful.

#21 - Chris Martin "A", Marty was back to his best in our final 2 regular season games, the team requires Marty to lead this weekend.

#44 - Don Burke, Don has a new lease on hockey and is playing well both offensively while creating calculated offensive chances, this could be Don's swan song as a Tongue and he will be out to impress with a disciplined weekend.

#88 - Henrik Ivarsson, Henrik like all the team's and league imports, plays for and thrives on the chance to play in finals games. He understands the hard work, discipline and limited chances a player has in their career to play for championships.

Forwards

#10 - Jon Bale, Jonnie scored two goals in our last regular season game, the defensive aspect of his game will need to be at its best this weekend, while continuing to capitalize on his offensive chances when they present themselves.

#22 - Marco Bertossa, "Stitch" the team and league iron man will need to continue his strong defensive play for the team to be successful this weekend.

#16 - Jack Connor, Jack is playing well centring Jonnie and Marco, he needs to be strong in the battles to be successful.

#23 - Ben Maher, Ben is always ready when called upon which will carry extra weight this weekend.

#17 - Matt Stubbert, Matt practiced well on Tuesday after being intrastate with work for over two month's, Matt's experience and puck handling skills will be on display when called upon.

#27 - Ross Howell, "C" Ross will dress for the semi final and will see time at centre between Maher and Stubbert. He is still nursing an injury, however, we know our captain is always up to the task at hand.

#96 - Dave Upton "A", with Uni commitments over for now, Davey is 100 % committed to the weekend and with that the team will benefit, as he has game breaking ability.

#7 - Andre Selander, Andre has arguably been our best forward the last few games and has been scoring big and impressive goals, he is keen to continue this trend and help the team to success this weekend.

#9 - Brad Smulders, Brad the league's leading scorer and single season record holder ( 76 points) will receive plenty of attention from the opposition, however, Brad's playmaking ability being his biggest asset will serve him well this weekend.   

Suspended

None

Missing due to family commitments

#19 - Trevor Walsh - Forward

Missing due to work commitments

None

Missing due to injury

None

We look forward to the strong fan support we will receive from those travelling to Newcastle from the Gold Coast and Brisbane to support the team and see the best hockey the country has to offer, so cheer long cheer hard, believe and we will achieve.

Remember, games can be viewed live on the internet by visiting www.slapshot.com.au , also there will be live stats of the games on www.theaihl.com.au . The games will also be replayed on Fox Sports and Channel 31 Brisbane.

Cheers
Kevin Sands
Coach