Australia will battle for ice hockey world championship gold in Melbourne next year
Australia will chase ice hockey world championship gold when the Division 2A titles are held in Melbourne next year. Will a NHL star don the green and gold?
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World championship ice hockey is returning to Melbourne in 2025.
On the back of the NHL playing two games down under last year, Ice Hockey Australia is looking to capitalise on the growing interest in the sport.
Melbourne’s Ice House will host the IIHF Division 2A World Championships in April-May next year, with the Mighty Roos looking to earn promotion to Division 1.
Australia last hosted the division championships in 2011 and won gold with a team featuring history-making NHL star Nathan Walker.
European powers Netherlands, Belgium and Serbia will feature, along with Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Ice Hockey Australia general manager, and former Melbourne Storm NRL player, Adam Woolnough said it was a significant coup.
“It’s phenomenal for us as a niche sport in Australia, to have a world championships here,” Woolnough said.
“Yes, ice hockey is played in Australia and yes, we can be competitive.
“We’ve just had the NHL come out, we saw a boost in membership numbers and participation and we’re hopeful they come out again next year.
“We’ve also got a really strong Australian Ice Hockey League … the Melbourne Ice are going fantastic and the Mustangs are coming off winning the Goodall Cup last year.”
Australia is a growing nation in international ice hockey.
Last year the and under-18 women’s team and under-20 men’s team both won gold in their divisions.
The under-18 women earned promotion to Division 1B to be the highest ranked national team, while the under-15 girls competed in the Youth Winter Olympics for the first time in South Korea.
The senior men placed fifth at this year’s championships in Serbia, while the women’s team finished second for the second year in a row in Division 2B in Turkey.
Australia’s only NHL export, Nathan Walker has established himself as a regular player with the St Louis Blues, playing 45 games this season and scoring seven goals.
While he hasn’t represented Australia at the championships since 2012, the return to home soil could see him back in green and gold colours.
“Obviously we would hope Nathan is playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs but anything after that it’s an open door policy,” Woolnough said.
“He’s won one (Stanley Cup) before so if he’s in that position, that’s the priority.
“He’s a great supporter of ice hockey in Australia, he’s down in Melbourne doing camps in the next month or so.
“He’s an outstanding role model for what can be achieved and if he was willing and able we certainly wouldn’t say no but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Australia was awarded the hosting rights at the IIHF Congress in Prague, Czech Republic on the weekend.
Woolnough revealed the plan had been to bid for the under-18 women’s tournament but when that wasn’t possible, the IIHF pushed IHA to host the Division 2A men’s.
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“It’s one of the most important events on the calendar for all countries to come together,” he said.
“We went over with the intent to bid on the Division 1 Under-18 Women’s but our preferred dates didn’t align with the international calendar.
“It signalled an intent from Ice Hockey Australia that we wanted to support hockey at all levels and our girls are in the top division – they are the highest ranked national team. We think the women’s side of the game has huge potential.
“Once we found out the timeline didn’t fit there was an opportunity to bid for the senior men championships and no one else bid.”
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