The Brisbane Blitz are an Australian

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

team based in

Brisbane, Queensland Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

playing in the second tier of the

Australian Junior Ice Hockey League The Australian Junior Ice Hockey League (AJIHL) is an elite amateur national ice hockey league in Australia, open to players 20 years of age or younger. History The Australian Junior Ice Hockey League was first announced on 18 September 2012 by ...

referred to as AJIHL Tier 2. They represent the first junior ice hockey team from Queensland as part of the proposed 2nd expansion of the

AJIHL The Australian Junior Ice Hockey League (AJIHL) is an elite amateur national ice hockey league in Australia, open to players 20 years of age or younger. History The Australian Junior Ice Hockey League was first announced on 18 September 2012 by ...

, which is the most elite level for ice hockey at a national level for ages between 16–20 years old.

Team history

At the beginning of the

2015–16 AJIHL season The 2015–16 AJIHL season is the fourth Season (sport), season of the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. It ran from 29 October 2015 until 21 February 2016, with the finals running from 27 February 2016 until 28 February 2016. The AJIHL is th ...

, a proposal for the next expansion in the AJIHL was made by

Ice Hockey Australia The Australian Ice Hockey Federation, currently trading as Ice Hockey Australia (IHA), is the official national governing body of ice hockey in Australia and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was first established in 1 ...

to include teams from the Australian states of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

. A Wild Card entry was created in the AJIHL playoffs structure but no further public information would be made available for months but plans to form junior teams in each of these states was underway. On 2 September 2015 a public announcement was made via the Southern Stars Ice Hockey of the decision to include a Queensland team as part of a new AJIHL Tier 2 competition. The first proposed games were to take place in Sydney on 5–6 December 2015. The team would undergo a 4-week training and development clinic, at the Acacia Ridge ice rink, run by Con Dionissiou (Ice Hockey Queensland President) and Darryl Dunsford (Southern Stars President) in September 2015. The Brisbane Blitz began by playing their first exhibition game under the name Brisbane AJIHL at 5:15 pm on 12 December 2015 against a Brisbane All Stars team consisting of Southern Stars Ice Hockey players and Boondall Buccaneers players. The game was played at Iceworld Olympic Ice Rink in

Boondall Boondall ( ) is a northern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was formerly known as Cabbage Tree Creek (after the creek that flows through the area). In the , Boondall had a population of 9,603 people. Geography Situate ...

. The Brisbane Blitz played in Canberra at the first AJIHL Tier 2 tournament in January 2016 against Canberra Junior Brave and Adelaide Generals. The Blitz won this tournament and therefore were selected as a Wild Card in the Tier 1 Finals which are being held 27–28 February 2016. On 20 November 2016 the Brisbane Blitz team was selected for the 2016-17 AJIHL season, where the team would join regular season competition for the first time. Blitz goaltender Imogen Perry became the first female to play in the

on 17 December 2016. The 16-year-old faced 38 shots on goal against the previous years champion Sydney Sabres, winning 7 – 1 in her debut. The first team in club history:

Players

Captains

* 2015–16 Mitchell Henning (C), Luke Moore (A), Harley Anderson (A) * 2016–17 Mitchell Henning (C), Matthew Gilpin (A), Harley Anderson (A)

Head coaches

The first Head Coach for the Brisbane Blitz was Con Dionissiou. * 2015–16 Con Dionissiou * 2016–17 Darryl Dunsford

References

{{Brisbane Sports Teams Australian Junior Ice Hockey League Ice hockey teams in Australia Sports clubs and teams in Brisbane 2015 establishments in Australia Ice hockey clubs established in 2015

Team history

Players

Captains

Head coaches

See also

References