The 2022 AIHL season is the delayed 21st season of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL), following the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The season will consist of 60 regular season games and is scheduled to run from 30 April to 28 August 2022, with the Goodall Cup finals, consisting of 2 semi-finals, a preliminary final and a grand final, following the regular season on 2–4 September 2022. The CBR Brave won the double and claimed the H Newman Reid Trophy for a third time and Goodall Cup for a second time in 2022 by finishing top of the regular season standings and winning the AIHL grand final. The Newcastle Northstars were runner's up to both titles and the Sydney Ice Dogs claimed the wooden spoon.
Teams In 2022 the AIHL had planned for 8 teams to be competing in the league when the season was announced. However, the Perth Thunder had to withdraw due to ongoing Western Australia border restriction challenges. Adelaide Adrenaline followed the Thunder in withdrawing from the 2022 season following failed protracted negotiations with the ice rink in Adelaide, leaving the team homeless in 2022. This left the league with six teams competing in the regular season in 2022. Two expansion teams, plus the Thunder, announced they would play exhibition games in 2022.
2022 AIHL teamsTeam City Arena Head Coach Captain CBR Brave Canberra Phillip Ice Skating Centre Stuart Philps Kai Miettinen Melbourne Ice Melbourne O'Brien Icehouse Sandy Gardner Austin McKenzie Melbourne Mustangs Melbourne O'Brien Icehouse Chris Lawrence Brendan McDowell Newcastle Northstars Newcastle Hunter Ice Skating Stadium Kevin Noble Liam Manwarring Sydney Bears Sydney Macquarie Ice Rink Ron Kuprowsky Brian Funes Sydney Ice Dogs Sydney Macquarie Ice Rink Ondrej Cervenka Daniel PatakyWithdrawn teams Adelaide Adrenaline Adelaide No home venue N/A N/A Perth Thunder Perth Perth Ice Arena N/A N/AExhibition teams Brisbane Lightning Brisbane Boondall Iceworld Terry Kiliwnik Damian Bright Central Coast Rhinos Erina Erina Ice Arena Ashley March Robert Malloy Perth Thunder Perth Perth Ice Arena Ben Breault Ben Breault
League business
The AIHL made the announcement that the league would return for a regular season and finals for 2022 on 6 December 2021, ending two years of cancelled competition and exhibition series'. The 2022 fixture list and finals schedule was released publicly by the AIHL on 8 February 2022. Melbourne would return as the host city of the AIHL Finals in 2022, after Newcastle hosted the 2019 edition. The League champion will be awarded the Goodall Cup, while the League Premiers will be awarded the H Newman Reid Trophy title. On 8 April 2022, the AIHL released a revised season schedule that did not change any dates but replaced Adrenaline and Thunder regular season fixtures with exhibition games involving the Rhinos, Lightning and Thunder.
The league made a number of key announcements in February in the lead up to the 2022 season start. Firstly, the AIHL would implement a game day format change it first flagged in 2020, which would bring the AIHL into line with international hockey standards. Game lengths would be increased from 50 minutes to 60 minutes with all three period lengths standardised to 20 minutes each. Previously the first two periods in the AIHL would be 15 minutes long with only the third period lasting 20 minutes. Secondly, the AIHL announced the expansion of domestic and international broadcasting of the league. Within Australia, more matches would be made available through partner broadcaster Kayo Sports, expanding on previous deals that included one game a round on delay. AIHL.TV would also provide an alternative platform for streaming content from the league. Internationally, the AIHL secured a deal with US-based Synergy Sports to deliver live streaming of AIHL games to the US, Canadian, United Kingdom and European markets. Thirdly, the AIHL will be setting up a new national community partnership to help showcase elite hockey in Australia. Lastly, the AIHL concluded the expression of interest process to find a new Licensee for the Adelaide Adrenaline license, following former holders, the South Australian Ice Sports Federation, relinquishing the license at the conclusion of the 2019 season. The League began the search in October 2021 and concluded five months later in February 2022 by announcing Benny Gebert and Glen Foll as the successful bidders for the license.
In March, the AIHL announced it had signed a three-year deal with Swiss-based Sportradar to become the league's global distributor of game streams and media rights. This superseded the previous announcement with Synergy Sports as Synergy was acquired by Sportradar In March 2022. As part of the deal, Sportradar would also supply AIHL teams with video and data analytical services. In addition, the league released details of a new finals format for 2022. The finals format would be expanded from two to three days with the semi-finals now formatted into major (1v2) and minor (3v4) games and an additional game, the preliminary final, would be added to the schedule on the middle day. The winner of the major semi-final automatically advances to the grand final, while the losing team plays-off against the winner of the minor semi-final in the preliminary final. It means the teams finishing third and fourth in the regular season will be required to play at least two games to reach the grand final and compete for the Goodall Cup.
Expanding on the league's earlier announcement from February, in late April 2022, the AIHL revealed further details around the Kayo Sports domestic broadcasting deal for the 2022 season. Every game of the AIHL regular season, all 60, would be streamed live, free and exclusive on Kayo Sports. This would be the first time the league would broadcast every game of the season. In July 2022, the AIHL and Ice Hockey Australia jointly founded a new Best and Fairest Award for all Australian national championships starting in 2022 including, Sydney Tange, Kurt Defris, Phillip Ginsberg, Jim Brown and Women's championships.
In June, the AIHL entered into a new partnership with Workplace Law. The agreement with the specialised law firm, would deliver the AIHL a partner for legal advice and support across governance and constitutional matters, employment issues, tribunal/disciplinary matters, sponsorship and broadcast arrangements and competition matters.
Interruptions
When the 2022 season was announced by the AIHL, it was indicated that all eight current AIHL teams would participate. The AIHL in February 2022 released the regular season schedule and it contained fixtures for all eight teams, home and away. In response to the schedule, the Perth Thunder released a public statement on 12 February 2022, confirming the current Western Australian border restrictions presented challenges for the team to participate in the 2022 season, but the team would continue to dialog with stakeholders and hope for a resolution from the state government. On 18 February 2022, the Thunder in conjunction with the AIHL announced the team would not participate in the 2022 AIHL season due to uncertainty of when the WA border would open again and the limited time left to organise the team and travel prior to the 2022 season kicking off. The Thunder did offer the possibility of exhibition matches being played in Perth in 2022 to compensate for the unfortunate situation for its players, staff, fans and sponsors.
Adelaide Adrenaline's participation in the 2022 AIHL season has been caste in doubt with negotiations with Adelaide IceArenA, the only ice rink facility in Adelaide, breaking down. On 15 February 2022, IceArenA management released a signed letter with a list of accusations and grievances against the AIHL and ended the letter stating it would be difficult for the arena to support the AIHL. The Adrenaline deemed the subsequent draft agreement proposed by the IceArenA management for use of the facility for the 2022 AIHL season as non-equitable and unviable. On 27 March 2022, the Adrenaline officially withdrew from the 2022 AIHL season.
On 26 February 2022, the CBR Brave responded to an unconfirmed claim that they were looking to leave the AIHL, by confirming their status as an AIHL team and committing to the league and the 2022 season. Brave CEO, Sunny Singh, said the league had taken profound action in addressing key issues the Brave had heading into the 2022 season.
Two regular season games set to be played in Melbourne between the CBR Brave and Melbourne Mustangs were first postponed and later cancelled in July 2022. The games, scheduled for 2 and 3 July 2022, were postponed after flight cancellations at Canberra Airport left the CBR Brave stranded in Canberra and unable to fly to Melbourne for the double header against the Mustangs. Despite efforts to rebook both the Saturday and Sunday games were postponed on the Saturday. Both teams tried to reschedule the two games but ultimately were unsuccessful. On 30 July 2022 it was revealed the game were cancelled and both teams would share the six points on offer, three points each. The League confirmed the games were officially cancelled on 3 August 2022.
Expansion
Two teams decided against pursuing AIHL licenses in 2022. The Melbourne Ducks played exhibition matches against AIHL teams in 2021 but decided to join the new Pacific Hockey League in 2022. Joining the Ducks in the Pacific Hockey League is the Brisbane Rampage, who abandoned their strategic goal of obtaining an AIHL license in favour of joining the rival league. Ice Hockey Queensland (IHQ) subsequently decided to withdraw their endorsement of the Rampage and seek an AIHL license themselves in partnership with Brisbane Buccaneers and the Southern Stars. On 28 February 2022, IHQ was granted an AIHL license by the league commission. IHQ revealed their new AIHL team would play out of Boondall Iceworld and be called Brisbane Lightning. On 7 March 2022, it was reveled former AIHL team, Central Coast Rhinos, had made contact with the AIHL to obtain a new license and present their case for re-admission to the league. The Rhinos last played in the AIHL in 2008 before a licensing disagreement saw the team leave the league. They applied for re-entry in 2015, but were unsuccessful in their application on that occasion. On 10 March 2022, the AIHL made the decision to grant the Rhinos a new AIHL license, ending the team's 14-year hiatus out of the league. Central Coast will play out of their spiritual home, Erina Ice Arena, which went through major renovations and upgrades between 2019 and 2022. Both the Lightning and Rhinos will play exhibition matches in 2022 with a view for both to join the AIHL regular league schedule in 2023.
Exhibition games