Brisbane Blitz
| Brisbane Blitz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| City | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| League | Australian Junior Ice Hockey League |
| Founded | 2 September 2015 |
| Home arena | Ice World Acacia Ridge |
| Owner(s) | Ice Hockey Queensland |
| Franchise history | |
| 2015–present | Brisbane Blitz |
| Championships | |
| Regular season titles | 0 |
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The Brisbane Blitz are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Brisbane, Queensland playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent the first junior ice hockey team from Queensland as part of the proposed 2nd expansion of the AJIHL, which is the most elite level for ice hockey at a national level for ages between 16–20 years old.
Team history
At the beginning of the 2015-16 AJIHL season, a proposal for the next expansion in the AJIHL was made by Ice Hockey Australia to include teams from the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. A Wild Card entry was created in the AJIHL playoffs structure but no further public information would be made available for months but plans to form junior teams in each of these states was underway.[1]
On 2 September 2015 a public announcement was made via the Southern Stars Ice Hockey of the decision to include a Queensland team as part of a new AJIHL Tier 2 competition. The first proposed games were to take place in Sydney on 5–6 December 2015. The team would undergo a 4-week training and development clinic, at the Acacia Ridge ice rink, run by Con Dionissiou (Ice Hockey Queensland President) and Darryl Dunsford (Southern Stars President) in September 2015.[2]
The Brisbane Blitz began by playing their first exhibition game under the name Brisbane AJIHL at 5:15pm on 12 December 2015 against a Brisbane All Stars team consisting of Southern Stars Ice Hockey players and Boondall Buccaneers players. The game was played at Iceworld Olympic Ice Rink in Boondall.[3]
The Brisbane Blitz played in Canberra at the first AJIHL Tier 2 tournament in January 2016 against Canberra Junior Brave and Adelaide Generals. The Blitz won this tournament and therefore were selected as a Wild Card in the Tier 1 Finals which are being held 27–28 February 2016.
On 20 November 2016 the Brisbane Blitz team was selected for the 2016-17 AJIHL season, where the team would join regular season competition for the first time. Blitz goaltender Imogen Perry became the first female to play in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League on 17 December 2016. The 16 year old faced 38 shots on goal against the previous years champion Sydney Sabres, winning 7 - 1 in her debut.[4]
References
- ↑ "League Schedule". Ice Hockey Australia. 1 March 2015. http://www.iha.org.au/leagues/. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
- ↑ "Buccaneers Ice Hockey Club - Practice Mixed - AJIHL Exhibition". Southern Stars Ice Hockey. 12 December 2015. https://www.facebook.com/StarsIceHockey/photos/a.392869887401.168655.110869507401/10153572370817402/. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
- ↑ "ATTN: Registered players born from 1995 - 1999.". Ice Hockey Queensland. 2 September 2015. http://bucs.hockeysyte.com/xsyte/game/1128. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
- ↑ "Ice Hockey Australia". Ice Hockey Australia. 24 December 2016. https://www.facebook.com/IceHockeyAustralia/posts/1295244783872281. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
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