Perth Thunder at Sydney Ice Dogs Aug 26

26 August - Perth Thunder at Sydney Ice Dogs.

The final round of the Australian Ice Hockey League was played last weekend. The playoff bound Sydney Ice Dogs were hosting the Perth Thunder, who had a strong debut season, finishing 4th in the Easton Conference.

Both teams stepped onto the ice with purpose,evidenced by some big hits early (most notably on, and by, Ice Dogs captain Andrew White. It took less than 3 minutes for Sydney import Casey Mignone(3G 2A) to light the lamp, beating Perth 'tender Ayden Millward on the Power-play, after brilliant passing from defenders Paul  Baranzelli (1A) and Andrew White(0G 3A).

Mignone would grab his second a little over 4 minutes later, with Shannon McGregor (0G  1A)picking up the assist. Casey was on the scoresheet again 24 seconds later, with an assist for fellow import Kirk Golden(2G  1A). 

3 goals from 5 shots saw Perth replace their goaltender with import Kiefer Smiley, but the damage had been done and the Ice Dogs went into the rooms leading 3-0.

Smiley's inclusion in the game saw the scoring tighten up, however he couldn't stop Mignone from picking up his hat trick from a short handed goal with 5:27 left on the clock as David Dunwoodie was off for hooking.

Perth's Jordan Kyros ruined Ice Dogs goalie Gabe Robledo's chance of a shut out at the 11:45 mark of the second period. 4-1 heading into the third.

The third period was a busy one for the referees, with 20 minutes of PIMs being handed out. Kirk Golden scored his second goal, again a short handed effort with Scott Stephenson off for slashing. A clear by Mignone straight off a defensive face off gave Golden a breakaway opportunity. Perth were able to draw another one back with 3:47 left to make it 5-2.

It only took 0:09 for Sydney to make the most of a 5 on 3 power play opportunity, with Tomas Manco picking up the goal, assisted by Kirk Golden. The lead increased again to 7-2 with Richard Tesarik slotting another power play goal (power play went 4/7 for the night).

Perth were able to make the score a little more respectable on the back of 2 quick Powerplay goals (one 5 on 3, one 5 on 4) as Scott and Todd Stephenson were off (Scott for cross checking, Todd for high sticking) in the last 2 minutes of the game.

A strong 7-4 win for the Ice Dogs, allowing them to build momentum for their playoff match up against the Melbourne Ice on September 1 in Newcastle.

After the game, Kirk Golden had his hair cut for The Children with Cancer Foundation and Locks for Love, raising nearly $1000. 

Where Miranda wants us to be like Vietnam

Whilst having lunch/dinner at the local McDonald's on Sunday, I perused their free copy of the Sunday Tory.

Came to the op-ed section and happened upon this delightful little number from Miranda

HAVING spent the last week in dynamic Vietnam[*], news of the ongoing dysfunction of our government and endless obsession with leadership battles seems childish and self defeating.

Yep, the government is completely dysfunctional! I mean, it's ONLY passed 226 bills that have received Royal Assent!

Oh, and the "endless obsession with leadership battles", Miranda? That'd be the obsession currently held by the Press Gallery/media. Honestly, noone else a) cares or b) thinks it should take up every last bit of newspace going around.

 

Year 12 students in Ho Chi Minh City attend school from 6.45 am to 8 pm six days a week. They sit in neat rows in classes as big as 42, with a teacher actually imparting information with a blackboard and chalk. 

Yay, rote learning! "Chalk and talk"! The teaching method which is being abandoned by most schools, due to the fact it simply does not engage students (it's called "passive learning" and it's a one-way flow. "Active learning" engages students in the task by exciting their interests or by being interactive in some form).

Of course, if you're educating children to work in clothes factories and manufacturing for the West, rather than be innovators, then I suppose they don't need to teach them critical thinking skills.

Meanwhile, we quibble over upgrading our busiest national highway, the Pacific Highway, to dual carriageway.

Strange, no mention about that *other* big infrastructure project Tony Abbott keeps talking about**.

It’s a democracy, after all - the people of Melbourne saddled us with the Green Adam Bandt and the witless citizens of New England and Lyne gave us the pleasures of Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, respectively.

Yes Miranda, in Australia we have a democracy. Which is better than the Marxist-Leninist-single-party state you were visiting and proudly extolling the virtues of : no democracy over there!

But, "witless" citizens of New England and Lyne?

Though, I suppose, if I was to go with the same line, I could say that the "witless citizens" of Indi and Sturt gave us the pleasures of Sophie Mirabella and Christopher Pyne....but I won't.

By the by, is it just me, or is that a fairly ad hominiem style attack on those voters by Miranda?

I only ask because, juxtaposed right next to that (main part of the page) column was this one

I won't deconstruct it, but it was basically a defence of Premier O'Farrell's first wife against being pulled into the public arena after a comment by Kristina Keneally.

But a salient line was:

[O'Farrell's first wife, Antoinette Colbran] decided she needed to speak out, to remind people of the toll the increasingly rancorous, ad hominem nature of Australian politics today.

 (Emphasis added).

Mmmm, cognitive dissonance.


* Or, for its full name: The Socialist Republic of Vietnam

** I use the term "talking" loosely there. Saying "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!",  "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAASTE!" and "WIRELESS IS THE FUTURE!" counts as him talking about it, right?

[Video] Subbang baby!

Crunch.



That's the best way to describe this hit.

(courtesy of The Hockey House)

[Video] Alexei Emelin's "All World" shift

Alexei Emelin.

Makes a huge hit on Pominville, then stops a goal being scored in the same PK shift.

My teams

Inspired by Grog linking me to an old post of his about which sports teams he follows and why, here's my list.

Rugby League:

Tribalism here. Mum grew up in Kogarah (around the corner from what is now known as WIN Jubilee Stadium). Dad grew up in Kiama, on the NSW South Coast (and pretty much in the heart of Illawarra Steelers territory) and ended up living in the St George area.

Australian Rules:

Geographic convenience, really. Well, Sydney and whoever's playing Collingwood ;-)

Rugby Union:


Double lot of teams here. First up, in the NSW Shute Shield is Randwick

Back when I first started getting into rugby union, George Gregan was captain of the Wallabies. Randwick was his club rugby side. Always liked the little fella, stuck with the 'wicks ever since.

In the Super comp, again, geographical convenience gives me the Waratahs

American Football and Major League Baseball

Don't really follow a team, but I will catch whatever game happens to be on OneHD when I'm home. 

Ice Hockey

The newest sport I've been hooked into following.

The Montreal Canadienes.

Fault is all my (Canadian) girlfriend's. Whilst she does live in Ontario, this is her team. And I wasn't allowed to follow the Toronto Maple Leafs, because they suck (although, I write this on the day that the Canadienes were beaten in overtime by the Boston Bruins and knocked out of the playoffs 4-3. Whereas the Leafs didn't make the playoffs - again). What would be nice would be to get some NHL games broadcast here (I'm looking at you, OneHD)


Pretty much all of them. Plus, the obligatory cricket (NSW Blues and Australia).

Why some NGOs shit me

So last night, I was watching Newshour with Jim Middleton on ABC News 24. They were doing a story on the use of cluster munitions by Qadaffi loyalists in Misrata. In it, they interviewed Laura Cheeseman from the Cluster Munitions Coalition.

She said:

We've been calling upon Libya to stop using cluster bombs....

Time for a reality check. Libya has been ignoring ENTIRE COUNTRIES with armies that could turn Libya into nothing more than a smoking crater. Why do you think they would listen to a small Non-Governmental Organisation, whilst fighting what is essentially a civil war?

I'm not against the aims of the CMC, but seriously - do you really think an egotistical dictator like Qadaffi is really going to listen to you, when he's been ignoring the UN Security Council, NATO and the United States, all of whom have a lot more influence and - more importantly -  means to back up what it says?

Barry O'Farrell and the Carbon Tax

Poor ol' Baz. Says he opposes the introduction of a $500 impost on NSW voters from Labor's carbon price and starts getting beaten from pillar to post over it.