2003 AIHL season

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.

2003 AIHL season
League	Australian Ice Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	3 May 2003 – 7 September 2003
Regular season
Premiers	Adelaide Avalanche (2nd title)
Season MVP	Dylan Martini (Avalanche)
Top scorer	Pavel Shtefan (North Stars)
Goodall Cup
Champions	Newcastle North Stars
Runners-up	Western Sydney Ice Dogs

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.[1]

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.[2]

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[3] with the final placings coming from hockeyarchives.[4]

Team	GP	W	T	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GDF	PTS
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 playoffs

Premiership winners

Statistics

Scoring leaders

List shows the ten top skaters sorted by points, then goals.[5]

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	POS
Pavel Shtefan	Newcastle North Stars	6	8	11	19	2	F
Daryl Bat	Newcastle North Stars	6	10	7	17	8	C
Greg Oddy	Adelaide Avalanche	6	10	7	17	10	F
Jake Ludvig	Newcastle North Stars	6	8	7	15	2
Vladimir Rubes	Sydney Bears	4	5	9	14	0	F
Chris Sekura	West Sydney Ice Dogs	6	2	10	12	31	F
Dylan Martini	Adelaide Avalanche	6	1	11	12	12	D
Phillipe Roussell	West Sydney Ice Dogs	6	8	3	11	22	F
Murray Wand	Sydney Bears	6	5	5	10	8	F
Trevor Walsh	Adelaide Avalanche	5	4	6	10	31	F

Leading goaltenders

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage.[5]

Player	Team	MIP	SOG	GA	GAA	SVS%	SO
Bill Benedictson	Adelaide Avalanche	135:00	70	6	2.00	91.43	0
Eric Lein	Adelaide Avalanche	135:00	70	7	2.33	90.00	0
Trevor Battaglia	Newcastle North Stars	270:00	166	17	2.83	89.76	0
Alan Becken	West Sydney Ice Dogs	224:10	132	16	3.21	87.88	1
Stuart Denman	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.[6] 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, secured third spot with a high scoring 10–5 victory over league Premiers Adelaide Avalanche.[4]

	Semi-finals				Final
	6 September –
	Adelaide Avalanche	1
					7 September –
	Western Sydney Ice Dogs	4
					Western Sydney Ice Dogs	1
	6 September –
					Newcastle North Stars	4
	Newcastle North Stars	7
	Sydney Bears	4
					Third place
					7 September –
					Adelaide Avalanche	5
					Sydney Bears	10

All times are UTC+10:00

Semi-finals

6 September 2003

Adelaide Avalanche

1–4 (1–2, 0–0, 0–2)

Western Sydney Ice Dogs

Sydney Ice Arena

Game reference

6 September 2003

Newcastle North Stars

7–4 (3–2, 1–1, 3–1)

Sydney Bears

Sydney Ice Arena

Game reference

3rd place

7 September 2003

Adelaide Avalanche

5–10 (1–4, 3–2, 1–4)

Sydney Bears

Sydney Ice Arena

Game reference

Final

7 September 2003

Western Sydney Ice Dogs

1–4 (0–1, 1–2, 0–1)

Newcastle North Stars

Sydney Ice Arena Attendance: 800

Game reference
	Allan Becken	Goalies	Trevor Battaglia
	0 – 1 3:08 – Sheffield (PP) (Bat, Shtefan) 0 – 2 15:56 – Bat (Sheffield, McInnes) 0 – 3 16:50 – McInnes (Sheffield, Shtefan) 17:36 – Jesko (PP) (Wilson, Haakstad) 1 – 3 1 – 4 36:50 – Ludvig (Duchemin)
	2 min	Penalties	2 min
	35	Shots	34

References

1. "AIHL History". hockeywise.com.au. Archived from the original on 5 September 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
2. "2003 AIHL Schedule". theaihl.com. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
3. "2003 AIHL season standings". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
4. "Championnat d'Australie 2003 (french)". hockeyarchives.info. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
5. "2003 AIHL Statistics". Ice Hockey Australia. Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
6. Lane, Tony. "First AIHL Finals Series 2003". Australian Ice Hockey League. Retrieved 6 March 2020.

External links

• Australian Ice Hockey League