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Well, the IIHF Division 1 World Championship for 2009 has been run and won (by Kazakhstan), with Australia relegated back to Division II. The results from each game really suffered due the injuries to Greg Oddy and Adrian Esposito during game 1, but the team should be commended for valiantly playing against professional players, and class teams. Many people expected the Aussies to lose such games against Japan, and Kazakhstan by 10+ goals, but the team's dedication, effort, teamwork, and abilities really made people sit up and respect the Aussies.
As expected by the HP community, we were all speculating that the tournament would be "won" or lost in the game against the Croatians, with the Aussies needing to defeat Croatia to remain in Division 1. The last time the Aussies played Croatia, the Croats controversially at the end of regulation, so we all thought that the Aussies would be more than a match for them. Sadly, this wasn't to be, and the Aussies were defeated 5-1.
There's some speculation that IIHF are going to revamp the World Championship format starting in 2010, and that Australia will not be sending a team. If that's the case, we'd be relegated to Division III. Not a good move, given the ground swell of support to the team from the 2008 effort up at Newcastle to get up to Division I in the first place.
For the Senior men, it's now time to fire up for the AIHL 2009 Season!
Well done to all the Australian Senior Mens players, you went over to Vilnius with a dream, and came home a well respected team in the International Ice Hockey arena!
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