The Dunedin Thunder, also known as the Phoenix Thunder for sponsoship reasons is a men's ice hockey team based in Dunedin, New Zealand, and are members of the New Zealand Ice Hockey League. The club plays their home games at the Dunedin Ice Stadium. The Thunder were founded in 2008 and joined the league as an expansion team. The club won their first regular season title in 2013 and have finished as runner-up in the playoffs in 2013, 2014, and 2026.
History
The Dunedin Thunder were founded in 2008 and joined the New Zealand Ice Hockey League, expanding the league to five teams. In their debut season the Thunder finished the regular season in last place, managing only one win from their 12 games. The team repeated their last place finish in the 2009 season, again finishing the season with only a single win. The Thunder improved from 2010 to 2012, finishing the regular season in fourth on two occasions and third in the 2012 season. In 2013 the Thunder claimed their first regular season title after finishing on 32 points and edging out the Canterbury Red Devils only on win percentage. The team advanced to the final against the Red Devils however lost the game 3–7. The following season the Thunder returned to the finals after finishing the regular season in second place. The team however went on to lose for the second year in a row to the Red Devils. In the 2015 season the Thunder finished the regular season in fourth place and failed to qualify for the playoffs.
Season-by-season results SeasonFinishPlayoff2008 12 1 – 0 – 11 30 91 4 5th Did not qualify 2009 16 1 – 0 – 15 42 142 2 5th Did not qualify 2010 16 3 4 – 1 8 71 84 18 4th Did not qualify 2011 16 3 2 – 0 11 78 108 13 4th Did not qualify 2012 16 8 1 – 2 5 77 65 28 3rd Did not qualify 2013 16 8 4 – 0 4 87 66 32 1st Lost final (Canterbury Red Devils) 2014 16 10 0 – 1 5 72 67 31 2nd Lost final (Canterbury Red Devils) 2015 16 5 0 – 0 11 66 108 15 4th Did not qualify 2016 16 2 0 – 0 14 44 94 6 5th Did not qualify 2017 16 6 3 – 0 7 73 60 24 3rd Did not qualify 2018 16 6 1 – 1 8 72 73 21 3rd Did not qualify 2019 16 4 2 – 0 10 45 75 16 4th Did not qualify 2020* 8 3 0 – 0 5 35 50 9 2nd Playoffs not held 2021*1431–285071134thPlayoffs not held20221620 -113437875thDid not qualify20231622 -1114994115thDid not qualify202416113115810085thDid not qualify
*The 2020 and 2021 seasons were truncated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Players and personnel Current roster Team roster for the 2026 NZIHL season
Team captains
Andre Robichaud, 2013–2014 Gino Heyd, 2015 Gints Leitis, 2016
Head coaches James van Leeuwen, 2010–2011 János Kaszala, 2012–2016 Matt Hladun, 2017–present
General managers Drew McMillian, 2014 Pete Hurring, 2015 Guillaume Leclancher, 2016 Alexis Robin, 2017 Dave Richards, 2023–present
References
External links Dunedin Thunder