Adelaide Avalanche

Adelaide Avalanche
City	Thebarton, Adelaide, South Australia
League	Australian Ice Hockey League
Founded	15 May 1999 (25 years ago) (15 May 1999)
Operated	2000–2008
Dissolved	17 June 2008 (15 years ago) (17 June 2008)
Home arena	Snowdome Adelaide
Colours	Blue, bronze, black and white
General manager	Alan Yarrow
Head coach	Corey Smith
Captain	Greg Oddy
Championships
Premierships	4 (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007)
AIHL Championships	2 (2000, 2001)

The Adelaide Avalanche was a semi-professional ice hockey club based in the Adelaide suburb of Thebarton, South Australia. The Avalanche, founded in 1999, was a founding member of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). The team's home venue was the Snowdome Adelaide (now known as IceArenA). The Avalanche competed in the AIHL for eight years, from its inaugural season in 2000 until 17 June 2008, when the club was replaced with the Snowdome's own team, Adelaide A's (later rebranded Adelaide Adrenaline), after its AIHL licence was revoked due to financial issues. During the club's lifetime, the Avalanche won four AIHL premierships and two AIHL championships.

History

Foundation and ECSL (1999–00)

The Adelaide Avalanche was founded in May 1999 by the Oddy and Thilthorpe families to secure national ice hockey competition for South Australia and their sons. Steve Oddy and James Thilthorpe headed the fledgling club as owners and directors, Steve Oddy taking on the role of club chairman.^[1]

The Avalanche appointed John Botterill as inaugural head coach. He would be assisted by Neil Boyle.^[2] Australian international defenceman, Pavel Bohacik, was appointed the club's maiden captain.^[3]

Adelaide quickly joined the de facto national league, East Coast Super League (ECSL) in 1999, in what would prove to be the NSW administered ECSL's last season.^[4] The Avalanche's first ever competitive game was on the road in Sydney against the Canterbury Eagles. Adelaide defeated the Eagles 7-5 to register the club's inaugural victory. Steve's son Greg Oddy led the South Australian outfit's opening performance, registering two goals. Oddy and Thilthorpe personally arranged and paid for the travel of east coast teams to Adelaide in 1999. On 15 May 1999, Adelaide hosted its first competitive home game at the Snowdome in Thebarton.^[1]

AIHL era (2000–08)

Along with the Sydney Bears and Canberra Knights, the Avalanche were one of the founding members of the AIHL in 2000. They finished first out of the three teams that year and claimed the inaugural AIHL championship. In 2001, the club enjoyed the same success in winning their second consecutive title.

In 2002, the Melbourne Ice, Western Sydney Ice Dogs, and Newcastle North Stars joined the AIHL, expanding it to six teams. The Goodall Cup, Australia's top prize in ice hockey, also became part of the AIHL that year. Adelaide again finished second in the overall standings and lost to the Bears in the Goodall Cup final.

The Avalanche finished the 2003 season with their fourth straight minor premiership but lost to the Ice Dogs in the first round of a newly introduced four-team playoff system. They would lose in the semifinals again in 2004 to the North Stars in double overtime.

As two more teams—the Brisbane Blue Tongues and Central Coast Rhinos—entered the league in 2005, the Avalanche returned to dominance by finishing first overall in the regular season standings. The "curse of the minor premiers" again haunted the team. Despite winning through to the Goodall Cup final for the first time in three years, they were defeated 3–1 by the North Stars in that game.

The Avalanche have retooled for 2006 in the quest for their first-ever Goodall Cup, with their current roster boasting Mighty Roos players Greg Oddy and brothers Ben & Luke Thilthorpe. They finished second after the regular season and hosted the finals series, beating the Ice Dogs 5–2 to reach the final but losing the final 0-4 to the North Stars.

Members of the Adelaide Avalanche were featured on episode 11 of Network Ten's Cyber Shack TV on 10 October 2006. Both David Huxley and Brad Wanchulak played and reviewed the new NHL 2K6 on Xbox 360.

The Avalanche came into financial difficulties in 2008, and after being able to host several game at the start of the season, could not meet its road commitments, forcing the team to withdraw from the remainder of the season on 17 June. The team's players were transferred to the newly formed Adelaide A's, who in a deal with the AIHL was allowed to play the remainder of the Avalanche's season.

In 2022 the name of the Adelaide Avalanche was revived by a new team competing in the Pacific Hockey League.^[5]

Season-by-season record

Adelaide Avalanche all-time record

Season	Regular season											Finals weekend								Top points scorer
	P	W	T	L	SW	SL	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Finish	P	W	L	GF	GA	Result	Semi-final	AIHL final	Name	Points
2000	Information not available										2nd	1	1	0	6	5	Champions	–	Won 6-5 (SO) (Bears)	John Oddy	34
2001	16	15	1	0	–	–	120	60	+60	31	1st	1	1	0	10	7	Champions	–	Won 10-7 (Bears)	Paul Lawson	38
2002	20	13	0	7	–	–	120	67	+53	26	2nd	1	0	1	4	7	Runners-up	–	Lost 4-7 (Bears)	Greg Oddy	39
2003[a]	18	15	0	3	–	–	98	52	+46	30	1st[b]	2	0	2	5	14	Fourth[c]	Lost 1-4 (Ice Dogs)	–	Greg Oddy	47
2004	20	7	1	9	1	1	64	68	-4	29	4th	1	0	1	2	3	Semi-finalist	Lost 2-3 (2OT) (North Stars)	–	Greg Oddy	30
2005	26	19	1	4	0	2	133	77	+56	60	1st	2	1	1	7	6	Runners-up	Won 6-3 (Bears)	Lost 1-3 (North Stars)	Darcy Corcoran	47
2006	28	19	–	9	0	0	134	84	+50	57	2nd	2	1	1	5	6	Runners-up	Won 5-2 (Ice Dogs)	Lost 0-4 (North Stars)	Brad Wanchulak	53
2007	28	17	–	7	1	3	124	99	+25	56	1st	1	0	1	1	4	Semi-finalist	Lost 1-4 (Bears)	–	Greg Oddy	43
2008	15[d]	3	–	8	2	2	32	53	-21	15	DNF	–								Peter Lindgren	29[e]

Notes:

Notes References:^[6][7][8]

Honours

Championships

• AIHL Championships (2000–01)¹

Champions (2): 2000, 2001

Runners-Up (0):

• Goodall Cup

Champions (0):

Runners-Up (3): 2002, 2005, 2006

• V.I.P. Cup (2004–07)²

Premiers (4): 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007

Runners-Up (2): 2002, 2006

¹ The first two season's of the AIHL did not have the Goodall Cup as the Championship prize. The Adelaide Avalanche is the only AIHL team to win the AIHL and not be crowned Goodall Cup Champions.

² This list also includes Premierships won prior to the first trophy (VIP Cup) for Premiers came into existence in 2004.

Franchise Awards

Each season, between 1999 and 2007, the Avalanche held an annual awards night where the team awarded a number of player awards.^[9]

Season	MVP	BR	FC	BD	LS	BDF	CA
1999	Glen Foll	Eric Lien	Trevor Walsh	Pavel Bohacik	John Oddy	–	–
2000	Greg Oddy	Shane Wouters	Greg Oddy	Pavel Bohacik	John Oddy	–	–
2001	Charlie Lawson	Charlie Lawson	Paul Lawson	Glen Foll	Paul Lawson	Chris Brlecic	–
2002	Eric Lien	Jamie Lever	Trevor Walsh	Glen Foll	Greg Oddy	Chris Brlecic	–
2003	Dylan Martini	Josh Harding	Trevor Walsh	Dylan Martini	Greg Oddy	Duane Gera	–
2004	Trevor Walsh	Cass Delsar	Greg Oddy	Chris Chant	Greg Oddy	Luke Thilthorpe	–
2005	Greg Oddy	Olivier Martin	Steve McKenna	Steve McKenna	Darcy Corcoran	Tanner Shultz	–
2006	Greg Oddy	David Huxley	Brad Wanchulak	Kevin Clauson	Brad Wanchulak	Chris Brlecic	Nigel Ward
2007	Olivier Martin	Sean Greer	David Huxley	Josh Harding	Greg Oddy	Mike Van Den Bosch	Ryan Remillard

Players

Last roster

Team roster for the 2008 AIHL season ^[10][11]

NHL players

A list of players that have played at least one game for the Avalanche and who have also played at least one game in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Name	Year(s)	NHL team(s)
Steve McKenna	2005	Los Angeles Kings; Minnesota Wild; Pittsburgh Penguins; New York Rangers
Mel Angelstad	2007	Washington Capitals

References:^[12][13]

International players

A list of players that have played at least one game for the Avalanche and who have also played at least one game for an international team at the World Championships organised by the IIHF.

Name	Caps	Points	PIM	Medals	Notes
Glen Foll	80	72	32	1 4	Australian captain for 15 tournaments (1990 to 2006)
Greg Oddy	72	118	131	2 3 3	Australian captain for 4 tournaments (2010 to 2014)
Ben Thilthorpe	32	20	51	1 1 3
Joshua Harding	31	8	16	1 1 1	Australian alternate captain for 1 tournament (2014–15)
David Huxley	28	10	8	2 1	Australian alternate captain for 1 tournament (2015–16)
Luke Thilthorpe	24	17	10	1 1 2
Pavel Bohacik	24	3	8
Daniel George	20	2	6	1 1
Andrew Brunt	16	6	8
Trevor Walsh	15	26	93	1 2
Chris Brlecic	14	10	20	2 1
John Oddy	14	28	36
Mitchell Villani	10	5	8	1
Ross Howell	10	5	2	1
Sean Greer	10	0	4
James Keane	9	4	2	1 1
Cass Delsar	9	4	8	2
Matthew Wegener	5	0	4
Ari Pullinen	5	0	2
Dusan Ocenas	4	2	2
Olivier Martin	1	0	0
Paul Cracknell	1	0	0

References:^{[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]}

Player records

Avalanche all-time, season and game player records.^[36]

All-time

No.	Appearances		Points		Penalty Minutes
#	Name	GP	Name	P	Name	PIM
1	Greg Oddy	133	Greg Oddy	280	Trevor Walsh	505
2	Ben Thilthorpe	126	Trevor Walsh	201	Greg Oddy	426
3	Luke Thilthorpe	122	Ben Thilthorpe	153	John Oddy	350
4	Chris Brlecic	119	Chris Brlecic	115	Ben Thilthorpe	346
5	Trevor Walsh	100	Luke Thilthorpe	113	Chris Brlecic	341
6	Eric Lien	84	John Oddy	111	Luke Thilthorpe	231
7	Josh Harding	77	Dylan Martini	86	Tanner Shultz	154
8	Glen Foll	68	Glen Foll	73	Cass Delsar	133
9	Daniel George	68	Brad Wanchulak	53	Ryan Clauson	107
10	James Keane	65	Darcy Corcoran	47	Dylan Martini	104

Season

Category	Record	Season	Held by
Most Points	53	2006	Brad Wanchulak
Most Goals	26	2006	Brad Wanchulak
Most Assists	33	2006	Greg Oddy
Most Points (Defenceman)	36	2003	Dylan Martini
Most Penalty Minutes	154	2005	Tanner Shultz
Best Goaltender Save %	91.8%	2005	Olivier Martin
Best Goaltender G.A.A	2.24	2005	Olivier Martin
Most Goaltender Wins	15	2006	Nigel Ward
Most Goaltender Shutouts	1	1999 / 2006	Eric Lien / Nigel Ward
Most Game Winning Goals	6	2003 / 2006	Greg Oddy / Brad Wanchulak
Most Power Play Goals	7	2006	Greg Oddy
Most Shorthanded Goals	4	2001	Trevor Walsh
Most Hatricks	4	2002	Greg Oddy
Most Consecutive GP with a point	17	2006	Greg Oddy

Single game

Category	Record	Date	Held by	Opponent
Most Points	9	19 Aug 2006	Greg Oddy	Canberra Knights
Most Goals	5	19 Aug 2006	Brad Wanchulak	Canberra Knights
Most Assists	6	19 Aug 2006	Greg Oddy	Canberra Knights
Most Penalty Minutes	52	22 Jul 2006	Ryan Clauson	Newcastle North Stars
Most Goaltender Saves	58	28 May 2000	Eric Lien	Sydney Bears
Fastest Goal (Start of Game)	14 secs	7 Jan 2000	Luke Thilthorpe	Penrith Phantoms
Fastest Two Goals	6 secs	7 Aug 2000	Greg Oddy	Canberra Knights
Fastest Hatrick	5.01 mins	22 Jun 2003	Trevor Walsh	Western Sydney Ice Dogs

Leaders

Team captains

The Avalanche had three captains in the team's known history.^[37] The captain in 1999 and between 2002-03 are currently unknown.

No.	Name	Term
1	Pavel Bohacik	1999–01
2	Chris Brlecic	2004–05
3	Greg Oddy	2006–08

References:^{[3][38][39][40][41]}

Head coaches

The Avalanche had four head coaches in the team's history.^[42]

No.	Name	Term
1	John Botterill	1999–06
2	Brandon Williams	2007
3	Steve McKenna	2008
4	Corey Smith	2008

References:^{[43][44][39][45][11][46][47]}

General managers

The Avalanche had two general manager groups (GMs) in the team's history.^[42]

No.	Name	Term
1	Steve Oddy James Thilthorpe	1999–06
2	Alan Yarrow	2007–08

References:^{[43][44][39][45][11][48][49]}

References

External links

• Adelaide Avalanche's website
• AIHL official web site
• Elite Prospects Team Profile