The 2009/2010 IIHL season came to a close recently on Saturday, 8th May. The final game of the season saw the Dundalk Bulls and Charlestown Chiefs face each other for the right to be named the 2009/2010 IIHL Champions.
Unfortunately, three of the original five teams that entered the IIHL back in October were unable to complete the season for various reasons and this left just the Bulls and Chiefs.
In their previous two encounters before the final game, the Chiefs won 10 – 2 and then the last encounter saw the Bulls win 6 – 3. Both teams saw off all other opponents in their games to leave the two of them joint leaders at the top of the table.
It was simple; the winner would be crowned the 2009/2010 IIHL Champions!!!
On the night, the Chiefs came out easy winners with a 12 – 2 victory. The Chiefs were up by two goals within three minutes with Aigars Brencis and Viktors Serdjukovs noticing the goals. The first period finished 4 – 0 with the Chiefs outshooting the Bulls by 19 – 8. The second period saw the Chiefs add three more goals to their tally through scores from Serdjukovs, Viktoras Vaiciulionis and Patrik Buda. The shots on goal were a little closer with the Bulls outshooting the Chiefs 14- 13. However, the Bulls powerful forwards of Vladimir Polacek, Petr Cseplo, Robert Grochowicz, Sean Dooley, Gareth Roberts and Steven Ewen were unable to find a way past Deniss Kurelass.
The score was 7 – 0 going into the third period. The Chiefs added five more goals in this period while the Bulls were able to add two through Matej Radusovsky and Dooley. The final score of the game was 12 – 2 with the Charlestown Chiefs becoming the 2009/2010 IIHL Champions. Viktors Serdjukovs and Sean Dooley picked up the man of the match awards for the Chiefs and Bulls, respectively.
Following the game, the Bulls were presented with medals for finishing second in the IIHL for the season while the Chiefs were presented with their medals and trophy for winning the IIHL. However, before these were presented, a number of individual awards were also presented.
IRISH ICE HOCKEY LEAGUE (IIHL)
IIHL – Champions: Charlestown Chiefs (medals & trophy)
IIHL – 2nd Place: Dundalk Bulls (medals)
IIHL Top Goal Scorer: Aigars Brencis (Charlestown Chiefs)
IIHL Best Forward: Vladimir Polacek (Dundalk Bulls)
IIHL Best Defenseman: Matej Radusovsky (Dundalk Bulls)
IIHL Best Goalkeeper: Deniss Kurelass (Charlestown Chiefs)
IIHL Best Rookie: Michael Rogan (Dundalk Bulls)
Photographs courtesy of www.derektuitephotography.ie