2015 AIHL season

The 2015 AIHL season was the 16th season of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). It ran from 25 April 2015 until 23 August 2015, with the Goodall Cup finals following on 29 and 30 August.

League business
The Gold Coast Blue Tongues license has expired two years after they were suspended from the AIHL due to their inability to organise a new ice rink. In response the league has started making enquiries in Brisbane to gauge interest in placing a team back in the city. The Central Coast Rhinos who played in the AIHL between 2005 and 2008 applied to re-enter the league at the 2014 Annual General Meeting. Their application however was rejected for undisclosed reasons. The Sydney Bears announced that they were moving from the Sydney Ice Arena to the Penrith Ice Palace. The Bears previously played at the Ice Palace from 2007 to 2011 before relocating to the Ice Arena. The teams move comes after the Ice Arena's land was approved for redevelopment. In January 2015 the Sydney Ice Dogs announced a deal with DGB Media Group to produce a highlights program for their home games which will be aired on the Television Sydney station. On 4 February the Canberra Institute of Technology announced that they had signed on with the CBR Brave as a major sponsor with a deal that would include the Institutes logo on the team jerseys and their students working with the players as part of their training. The Brave also signed Anytime Fitness as a sleeve sponsor, Benchmarc Financial Group as a pants sponsor and Smoque restaurant as the clubs official post match partner. In April 2015 the Sydney Ice Dogs signed Southern Cross Group Services as a new sponsor for the club. In March the league revealed new branding which included a new logo and slogan “Fast, Fierce, Full-on”. The new logo which is designed to represent the Australian Commonwealth star and a blade of an ice hockey stick was developed by Coordinate. The CBR Brave announced that they had established a junior affiliate club, known as the Junior Brave, in conjunction with Ice Hockey ACT to compete in the NSW Midget Ice Hockey League. On 17 March Hards Transport signed a deal with the Adelaide Adrenaline to become the clubs naming rights sponsor. In April the Sydney Bears signed a deal with TGI Fridays Macquarie Centre restaurant to sponsor the bar located at the Penrith Ice Palace. The league changed one rule for the 2015 season, adopting the hybrid icing rule to allow players to better prepare for International Ice Hockey Federation competitions and mitigate risks associated with end wall collisions.

Exhibition games
The first exhibition game was held on 21 March between the Adelaide Adrenaline and an Ice Hockey South Australia A-Grade All Stars team at the Adelaide Ice Arena. The Adrenaline defeated the All Stars 5-1. In April 2015 the Perth Thunder competed in a three game exhibition series against the New Zealand national team at the Perth Ice Arena. The three games were held as part of the New Zealand teams preparation for the 2015 IIHF World Championship Division II Group B tournament. The Thunder won the series two games to one, winning the opening two games before being beaten in the third. The Wilson Cup tournament was held for the second year in a row and again featured all three New South Wales based clubs. The number of games was increased from four to seven with a double round-robin being held before a final between the two top ranked teams. The Sydney Bears finished first in the round robin, winning three of their four games, and were drawn against the Newcastle North Stars in the final. The North Stars won the final 4-3, claiming their first Wilson Cup title. On 18 April the Melbourne Ice and Melbourne Mustangs competed in an preseason game at the Medibank Icehouse with the Mustangs winning the game 9-1.

Personnel changes
In September 2014 the Sydney Ice Dogs announced that Andrew Petrie had resigned as head coach. A week later the Newcastle North Stars announced that they had signed Petrie as head coach for the 2015 season. Petrie replaced Garry Doré who stepped down from the position to focus on his role as general manager. In December 2014 the Melbourne Ice announced their new committee for 2015. Bernie O'Brien was elected president, replacing Emma Poynton, former Ice goaltender Stuart Denman was elected vice president, Erin Tempest elected secretary and Virginia Fitzwater was elected treasurer. Chris Caveny, Nigel Sherwin, Shan Humphries and Alexandra McKnight were also added to the committee, while Candace Smith and Jo Luciania stepped down from their positions. The Melbourne Mustangs announced that assistant coach Mark Connolly had stepped down from his position. He was replaced by current head coach of the Melbourne Whalers and Saints-Monarchs Premier A team, Michael Flaherty. In January 2015 the Adelaide Adrenaline announced that general manager Ross Noga had resigned from his position due to time constraints following a change in career. Also in January the CBR Brave announced that they had signed former player Brad Hunt as head coach, replacing Matti Luoma who relocated to Perth, Western Australia. In March 2015 both the Sydney Ice Dogs and the Perth Thunder announced the appointment of new head coaches. The Sydney Ice Dogs signed Oman national team head coach Anders Jespersen to replace Andrew Petrie who resigned in September 2014 to join the North Stars. The Thunder promoted assistant coach Dave Kenway to the head coach position, replacing Stan Scott who returns to his general manager position. Also in March it was revealed that the Sydney Bears had hired former Sydney Ice Dogs head coach Ron Kuprowsky as an assistant to head coach Vladimir Rubes.

Regular season
The regular season started on 25 April 2015 and ran through to 23 August 2015 before the top four teams compete in the Goodall Cup playoff series. In February 2015 it was announced that the Sydney Bears and Sydney Ice Dogs had moved some of their home games to Canberra. The Sydney Bears home game against the CBR Brave on 20 June had to be moved due to the Penrith Ice Palace being unavailable for the game. The Sydney Ice Dogs moved both their 1 August and 22 August home games against the Brave to Canberra for undisclosed reasons. The Ice Dogs also moved their 23 May home game in Liverpool against the Newcastle North Stars to 14 June at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in Newcastle. On 28 July 2015 the league fined the Sydney Ice Dogs $500 and three competition points for multiple breaches of the AIHL by-law 4. The by-law requires a team to travel with at least 15 players unless an exemption has been granted. The Ice Dogs first breached the by-law on 4 July and received a written warning and then again breached it on 25 July and 26 July, attracting the monetary fine and loss of competition points. The Ice Dogs, who at the time of the fine only had two competition points, revert to zero points and can not gain any further points until they have accumulated the points they have forfeited.

August
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Standings
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1The Ice Dogs were fined three competition points for multiple breaches by-law 4 which requires teams to travel with at least 15 players unless an exemption has been granted.

Goodall Cup playoffs
The 2015 are set to start on 29 August 2015, with the Goodall Cup final being held on 30 August. Following the end of the regular season the top four teams will advance with the playoff series. The series will be a single game elimination with the two winning semi-finalists advancing to the Goodall Cup final. The Goodall Cup was won by the Newcastle North Stars who defeated the Melbourne Ice 3 - 2, from a penalty shot in 1st overtime.

Semi-finals
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