Sydney Bears

Sydney Bears
2016 AIHL season
City	Jamisontown, New South Wales
League	Australian Ice Hockey League
Founded	1982
Home arena	Penrith Ice Palace
Colours
General manager	Wayne Hellyer
Head coach	Ron Kuprowsky
Captain	Michael Schlamp
Website	Bearsden.com.au
Franchise history
1982–1997	Macquarie Bears
1997–2007	Sydney Bears
2007–2009	AIHL Bears
2010–	Sydney Bears
Championships
Regular season titles	2 (2002, 2008)
Conference Championships	0
Goodall Cups	2 (2002, 2007)

The Sydney Bears are a semi-professional ice hockey team based in Penrith, New South Wales, who are members of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). They have won two Goodall Cup championships since their founding in 2000, most recently in 2007. The Bears are one of the original three teams that founded the AIHL in 2000, along with the Adelaide Avalanche, and Canberra Knights. The Bears play out of the Penrith Ice Palace, having previously played at the Sydney Ice Arena.

Team history

The Bears were founded in 1982 and were originally known as the Macquarie Bears.^[1] Due to the upcoming formation of a national league the team changed its name to the Sydney Bears in 1997.^[1] In 2007 the team separated away from its junior club operations and were renamed the AIHL Bears. After the split the team remained affiliated with the junior club, which kept the name of the Sydney Bears Ice Hockey Club.^[1] In 2010 the AIHL Bears were reverted to their old name, Sydney Bears.

The Bears are two-time winners of the Goodall Cup and won the AIHL championship in 2002 and 2007. The Bears were one of three teams that founded the AIHL in 2000, along with the Adelaide Avalanche and Canberra Knights. Although the Bears did not win the championship in either year, they won the Goodall Cup tournament in 2001 in Newcastle, the last time the Cup was awarded independently of the AIHL.

In 2002, the Bears defeated the Avalanche in the Goodall Cup final for their second consecutive Cup and their first and only AIHL championship to date. Four members of the Bears - Tyler Lovering, Brett Nelson-Bond, Vladimir Rubes and Murray Wand - were named to the Mighty Roos roster for the 2006 Division II World Championships in New Zealand. In 2007 the team announced they would move to Penrith for the 2007 AIHL season at which time, dropping "Sydney" to become The Bears, or AIHL Bears. For the start of the 2010 season the Bears reverted to their previous name of Sydney Bears.^[2]

2011 Season

The Bears commenced the 2011 season on 16 April with a home opener against the newest addition to the AIHL, The Mustangs. Bears rookie forward Lucian Hackett scored the first goal of the season on his debut. Other Bears players making their debut were Laurie Mock, and import Kurtis Dulle.^[3] The Bears struggled to record a win in their first five games, however their roster was not yet at full strength. The Bears were missing goaltender Sheldon Baerg, forward Tony Demelinne who was representing Netherlands at the IIHF World Championship Division I,^[4] and defenceman Jordan Hale who was competing in the Royal Bank Cup with the Camrose Kodiaks.^[5]

With the 2011 Roster finally at full strength with the arrival and clearance of their import players, the Bears made their way to Melbourne. The Bears showed signs of improvement in their game against the Melbourne Ice, losing 3-4 to them in the shootout.^[6] The Bears also lost import Jordan Hale to a season ending lower body injury. The Bears then went on to record their first win of the season against the The Mustangs in a thrilling 5-3 victory, with newly acquired import Tony Demelinne displaying some of his puck handling skills and recording 4 points during the game.^[7]

However The Bears game seemingly unravelled, experiencing huge losses to the Knights, BlueTongues and Ice. However bouncing back in June recording a win against the Newcastle North Stars, ending their winning streak and starting a 3-game win streak of their own. The month of June saw the Bears 3-2-0, and they reached a peak position of 7th in the standings.

2012 season to current

In February 2012 the Sydney Bears announced that they were leaving the Penrith Ice Palace as their home arena and were returning to play their games at the Sydney Ice Arena in Baulkham Hills where they had previously played from 2003 to 2006.^[8] In January 2015 the Bears announced that they were moving back to the Penrith Ice Palace for the upcoming 2015 AIHL season.^[9][10] The move comes after the Sydney Ice Arena's land was approved for redevelopment.^[9]

Season-by-season record

¹ As of the 2006 AIHL season, all games will have a winner. In 2014 due to the cancellation of a game the AIHL declared the result a tie.

* The Bears were penalised 3 competition points for icing players that had not been officially cleared to play by the IIHF and IHA.

Championships

Goodall Cup: 2002, 2007

V.I.P. Cup: 2008

Players

Roster

Team roster for the 2016 AIHL season^[11][12]

#	Nat	Name	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
3		Adams !Steven Adams	D	R	37	2009	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
91		Air !Saxon Air	F	R	21	2011	Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia
16		Annesley, RyanRyan Annesley	D	L	30	2016	Ajax, Ontario, Canada
47		Austin !Spencer Austin	D	L	24	2011	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
1		Burgess !Dylan Burgess	G	L	22	2015	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
97		Clare !Tyerell Clare	D	R	19	2015
10		Cliff, BillyBilly Cliff	F	R	24	2016	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
8		Cooney !Tommy Cooney	F	R	22	2015	West Grove, Pennsylvania, United States
30		Downie !James Downie	G	L	16	2015	Kellyville, New South Wales, Australia
84		Esposito, AdrianAdrian Esposito	F	R	31	2013
94		Fahmy !Lachlan Fahmy	D	L	17	2016	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
48		Frazer !Charlie Frazer	D	R	21	2015	Gosford, New South Wales, Australia
2		Funes, BrianBrian Funes	D	R	25	2016	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
7		Henderson !Alex Henderson	F			2016	Australia
19		Irwin !Geoff Irwin	F	L	31	2016	Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
94		Kawasaki !Nic Kawasaki	F	R	23	2016	Atherton, California, United States
1		Kimlin, AnthonyAnthony Kimlin	G	L	26	2016	Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
24		Landa !Tomas Landa	F	L	33	2015	Czech Republic
13		McKenzie !Lachlan McKenzie	F	L	20	2015	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
19		Merwin !Ian Merwin	F			2016
32		Read !Luke Read	G	L	32	2013	Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
94		Rhodes !Joel Rhodes	D	R	30	2016	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
55		Roblebo !Gabriel Roblebo	G	L	30	2016	Australia
11		Schlamp, MichaelMichael Schlamp (C)	F	R	35	2009	Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
12		Smith !Cam Smith	F		23	2016	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
55		Tesarik !Richard Tesarik	F	L	31	2015
4		Todd, CameronCameron Todd	F	R	22	2013	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
90		Turner !Lee Turner	F	R	26	2013	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
37		Vandenberg !Brent Vandenberg	F	R	27	2016	Burlington, Ontario, Canada
5		Vasquez !Jeremy Vasquez	F	L	16	2016	Kings Langley, New South Wales, Australia
43		Ward !Patrick Ward	D	R	32	2015	Kirkcaldy, Scotland
72		Zvonicek !Luke Zvonicek	F	R	20	2015	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Notable players

• Nick Boucher
• Adrian Esposito

Franchise scoring leaders

Top 10 franchise All-Time points scorers ^[13]

Note: GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; TP = Points; * = current Bears player

Top 5 franchise All-time Points Per Game

Note: GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; TP = Points; PPG= Point-Per Game * = current Bears player

Current Staff

Arena

Home games are played at the Penrith Ice Palace in Penrith, on the western outskirts of Sydney, New South Wales. The team previously played at the Sydney Ice Arena in Baulkham Hills, but announced they would move to Penrith for the 2007 AIHL season.

References

External links

• Official website of the Sydney Bears
• Sydney Bears profile on Elite Hockey Prospects
• The Official AIHL site