The 2003 AIHL season was the fourth season of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). It ran from 3 May 2003 until 29 August 2003, with the Goodall Cup finals following on 6 and 7 September 2003. The Adelaide Avalanche won the Premiership after finishing the regular season first in the league standings. The Newcastle North Stars won the Goodall Cup for the first time by defeating the Western Sydney Ice Dogs in the final.
League business
In 2003, AIHL President Tony Lane introduced the 'top four' finals (playoff) format that replaced the one off final format used in the first three seasons of the AIHL. The new format saw the top four placed teams in the regular season standings qualify for the finals weekend where first would play fourth and second would face off against third in a single match elimination with the two winning teams advancing to the Goodall Cup final and he two losing teams advancing to the third place play-off, however this only occurred in 2003 and was dropped from the format in future years.
Regular season
The regular season began on 3 May 2003 and ran through to 29 August 2003 before the top four teams advanced to compete in the Goodall Cup playoff series.
Fixtures and results
The 2003 season consisted of 60 fixtures that were scheduled between 3 May and 29 August. Each of the six teams where scheduled to play 20 games, with four games designated double-points games, where the one result counts towards two games, to save on travel costs. Game 58 between the Canberra Knights and Adelaide Avalanche was cancelled due to ice problems at the rink inside Snowdome Adelaide. It was decided game 59 on the Sunday between the two teams would count as a double-points game instead, raising the number of double-points games for the 2003 season to five.
May
May Game # Date Time Away Score Home Location 1 3 May 2003 17:30 Ice Dogs 8–0 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 2 3 May 2003 17:00 Bears 4–7 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium 3 4 May 2003 17:30 Ice Dogs 9–6 Bears Sydney Ice Arena 4 10 May 2003 17:30 Knights 3–8 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 5 10 May 2003 18:00 North Stars 9–3 Ice Olympic Ice Skating Centre 6 11 May 2003 15:00 North Stars 9–0 Ice Bendigo Ice Skating Stadium 7 17 May 2003 16:30 Ice 3–8 Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 8 17 May 2003 17:30 Bears 3–5 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 9 17 May 2003 17:30 North Stars 7–3 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 10 18 May 2003 16:15 Ice 3–5 Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 11 18 May 2003 17:30 Knights 3–7 Bears Sydney Ice Arena 12 24 May 2003 17:30 Avalanche 12–1 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 13-14 25 May 2003 17:30 Avalanche 4–3 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 15 25 May 2003 17:00 Knights 4–11 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium 16 31 May 2003 16:30 Bears 1–4 Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 17 31 May 2003 18:00 Knights 1–7 Ice Olympic Ice Skating Centre 18 31 May 2003 17:00 Ice Dogs 2–4 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium
June
June Game # Date Time Away Score Home Location 19 1 Jun 2003 15:00 Knights 0–4 Ice Bendigo Ice Skating Stadium 20 1 Jun 2003 16:30 Bears 2–6 Avalanche Snowdome AdelaideBye for all teams - Long weekend 21 14 Jun 2003 17:30 Ice Dogs 3–5 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 22 14 Jun 2003 18:00 Avalanche 4–2 Ice Olympic Ice Skating Centre 23 15 Jun 2003 15:00 Avalanche 4–1 Ice Bendigo Ice Skating Stadium 24 15 Jun 2003 17:00 Knights 1–5 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium 25 15 Jun 2003 17:30 Ice Dogs 2–4 Bears Sydney Ice Arena 26 21 Jun 2003 16:30 Ice Dogs 3–2 Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 27-28 21 Jun 2003 17:30 Ice 3–1 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 29 21 Jun 2003 17:00 Bears 1–2 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium 30 22 Jun 2003 16:15 Ice Dogs 6–7 Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 31 22 Jun 2003 17:00 Ice 1–7 Bears Sydney Ice ArenaBye for all teams - Brown Trophy tournament
July
July Game # Date Time Away Score Home Location 32 5 Jul 2003 17:30 Ice 3–3 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 33 5 Jul 2003 17:30 Bears 2–8 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 34 6 Jul 2003 17:00 Ice Dogs 2–8 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium 35 6 Jul 2003 17:00 Ice 1–3 Bears Sydney Ice Arena 36 12 Jul 2003 17:30 Avalanche 5–2 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 37 13 Jul 2003 17:00 Avalanche 9–5 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium 38 19 Jul 2003 16:30 North Stars 2–10 Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 39 20 Jul 2003 16:15 North Stars 4–8 Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 40 26 Jul 2003 17:30 North Stars 6–5 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 41 26 Jul 2003 17:30 Bears 4–1 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 42 27 Jul 2003 17:30 North Stars 3–2 Bears Sydney Ice Arena
August
August Game # Date Time Away Score Home Location 43 2 Aug 2003 17:30 Knights 1–9 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 44 2 Aug 2003 18:00 Bears 9–5 Ice Olympic Ice Skating Centre 45 3 Aug 2003 15:00 Bears 5–0 Ice Bendigo Ice Skating Stadium 46 3 Aug 2003 17:30 North Stars 4–2 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 47 9 Aug 2003 17:30 Ice 1–11 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 48 9 Aug 2003 17:00 Avalanche 10–3 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium 49-50 10 Aug 2003 17:00 Avalanche 5–6 Bears Sydney Ice Arena 51-52 10 Aug 2003 17:00 Ice 1–9 North Stars Hunter Ice Skating Stadium 53 16 Aug 2003 17:30 North Stars 7–5 Knights Phillip Ice Skating Centre 54 16 Aug 2003 18:00 Ice Dogs 4–3 Ice Olympic Ice Skating Centre 55 17 Aug 2003 15:00 Ice Dogs 5–0 Ice Bendigo Ice Skating Stadium 56 17 Aug 2003 17:30 Knights 2–8 Bears Sydney Ice Arena 57 23 Aug 2003 17:30 Bears 3–6 Ice Dogs Blacktown Ice Arena 58 23 Aug 2003 16:30 Knights Cancelled Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 59 24 Aug 2003 16:15 Knights 1–12 Avalanche Snowdome Adelaide 60 24 Aug 2003 17:30 North Stars 2–7 Bears Sydney Ice Arena
Key: Winner Tie
Standings
The 2003 AIHL season statistics and standings are incomplete. No one source has all the information and the AIHL has not published official statistics on www.theaihl.com. The Statistics for the following table comes from Elite Prospects with the final placings coming from hockeyarchives.
Team Adelaide Avalanche 7 7 0 0 0 0 43 16 +27 14 Newcastle North Stars 6 6 0 0 0 0 47 17 +30 12 Sydney Bears 6 1 0 0 0 5 23 34 −11 2 Western Sydney Ice Dogs 7 4 0 0 0 2 38 24 +8 8 Melbourne Ice 6 2 0 0 0 4 20 32 −12 4 Canberra Knights 8 0 0 0 0 8 16 64 −48 0 Qualified for the Goodall Cup playoffsPremiership winners
The statistics for the following table comes from the Newcastle North Stars and includes double point games. Team Adelaide Avalanche 18 15 0 0 0 3 98 52 +46 30 Newcastle North Stars 19 14 0 0 0 5 101 76 +25 28 Sydney Bears 18 11 0 0 0 7 74 64 +10 22 Western Sydney Ice Dogs 18 10 1 0 0 8 90 64 +26 21 Melbourne Ice 19 4 1 0 0 14 46 92 −46 9 Canberra Knights 18 1 0 0 0 17 45 106 −61 2 Qualified for the Goodall Cup playoffsPremiership winners
Statistics Scoring leaders List shows the ten top skaters sorted by points, then goals. Player Team Newcastle North Stars 6 8 11 19 2 F Newcastle North Stars 6 10 7 17 8 C Adelaide Avalanche 6 10 7 17 10 F Newcastle North Stars 6 8 7 15 2 Sydney Bears 4 5 9 14 0 F West Sydney Ice Dogs 6 2 10 12 31 F Adelaide Avalanche 6 1 11 12 12 D West Sydney Ice Dogs 6 8 3 11 22 F Sydney Bears 6 5 5 10 8 F Adelaide Avalanche 5 4 6 10 31 F
Leading goaltenders Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage. Player Team Adelaide Avalanche 135:00 70 6 2.00 91.43 0 Adelaide Avalanche 135:00 70 7 2.33 90.00 0 Newcastle North Stars 270:00 166 17 2.83 89.76 0 West Sydney Ice Dogs 224:10 132 16 3.21 87.88 1 Melbourne Ice 135:00 89 15 5.00 83.15 0
Goodall Cup playoffs
The 2003 playoffs, known in 2003 as the 'Canadian Club On Ice Finals Series' for sponsorship reasons, was scheduled for 6 September with the Goodall Cup final and 3rd place play-off held on 7 September 2003. Following the end of the regular season the top four teams advanced to the playoff series which was held at the Sydney Ice Arena (then known as the new Sydney Glaciarium, but not to be confused with the original Sydney Glaciarium that closed in 1955) in Sydney. The series was a single game elimination with the two winning semi-finalists advancing to the Goodall Cup final and the two losing teams advancing to the third place play-off. The Goodall Cup was won by Newcastle North Stars (1st title) who defeated the Western Sydney Ice Dogs 4–1 in the final. The hosts, Sydney Bears, who were without their number one goaltender Joel Gibson for the weekend due to injury, secured third spot with a high scoring 10–5 victory over league Premiers Adelaide Avalanche.
All times are UTC+10:00
Semi-finals
3rd place
Final
References
External links Australian Ice Hockey League