Lindsay marks decade in AIHL

After returning home from the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships with a silver medal, Newcastle Northstars alternate captain Mathew Lindsay is ready to kick off his 10^th season in the Australian Ice Hockey League.

Lindsay was unable to travel with the Northstars to Adelaide and Perth for the opening round of the 2017 season due to university commitments.

But the defenceman is expected to play in this weekend’s double header at home.

He said he is looking forward to bouncing back from what happened last weekend and to go strong from here on out.

Lindsay, Northstars captain Bert Malloy, new goaltender Charlie Smart, Pat Nadin and Beau Taylor were all selected to represent Australia on the Mighty Roos team this year.

The Mighty Roos, Australia senior men’s ice hockey team, did incredibly well in the IIHF Division II Group A world championships which were held in Galati, Romania earlier this month.

The round robin competition saw the Mighty Roos take on Serbia in the opening match, and nabbing an overtime win.

The winning streak continued against Iceland, 3-2, and Spain, 5-3.  

The boys came unstuck against the hosts Romania losing 5-1.

In their last game against Belgium the Mighty Roos cemented their second-place standing, and to make sure they didn’t fly home empty handed, winning 3-0.

The Mighty Roos were promoted to Group A after winning gold in 2016.

Lindsay spoke about how it felt going in to this year’s championships.

“It was really exciting, for me obviously,” he said.

“It was my second year playing in the team and a chance to play a higher level than I ever have before.

“We were keen to see what the competition was like especially the fact that we’re now playing against professional hockey players.”

The games were exciting to watch and a great way to get your pre-season hockey fix, while seeing some familiar faces.

It was an especially exciting tournament for Taylor who made his debut playing for Australia.

The IIHF had long believed that Taylor was Canadian and as such wasn’t allowed to represent Australia.

After fighting the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) to have his Australian citizenship recognised, Taylor was finally able to follow in the footsteps of his father Jeff this year and represent his country for ice hockey.

Jeff played for team Australia in the 1980’s, making them one of the very few father-son duos to have each represented Australia in hockey on the international stage.

Lindsay spoke about how great it was not only to have familiar faces on the team, but to also finally have Taylor on the ice wearing the Australian jersey.

“I remember him messaging me the day he found out he could play,” Lindsay said.

“Because we’ve been going back and forth since we were 17 years old trying to play on the Australia team together whether it was youth, juniors or the men’s team.

“So it was a dream come true getting to suit up with him.”

The round robin tournament saw many games played during the day with only around 150-300 spectators at most.

The Australian team had support though.

Many friends, fans and family made the trip to Romania, bringing with them a token blow-up kangaroo and joey as their mascot.

Lindsay said it was great to have support in the stands.

“It was surprisingly a really good atmosphere, even the day games because we had so many fans, friends and family that had come to support us, which is always really great,” he said.

“But the Romania game was just insane.

“Three thousand people there watching banging on drums and all sorts of non-sense was a pretty great experience.”

The puck drops for the first time at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium at 5pm on Saturday, April 29, against the Sydney Bears.

The double header continues Sunday, April 30, at 5pm against Canberra Brave.