Perth Thunder

Perth Thunder
City	Perth, Western Australia
League	Australian Ice Hockey League
Founded	2010
Operated	2010–present
Home arena	Perth Ice Arena
Colours	Blue, white, red
General manager	Stan Scott
Head coach	Ben Breault
Captain	Jamie Woodman
Website	www.perththunder.com.au
Franchise history
2010–present	Perth Thunder
Championships
H Newman Reid Trophies	0
Goodall Cups	0
Current season

The Perth Thunder is an Australian semi-professional ice hockey team from Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 2010, the Thunder have been a member of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) since 2012. The Thunder are based at the Perth Ice Arena, located in the suburb of Malaga. Perth are one time Goodall Cup runners-up and two time H Newman Reid Trophy runners-up.

History

Foundation blocks

The concept of a Perth based Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) team began in 2007. Englishman Stan Scott, a former four time national champion in the 1980s, began a conversation about the idea due to local state hockey becoming predictable and boring. The need for a new challenge and a pathway for local Western Australian talent was the driving force that propelled the idea into action and eventually a team. ^[1]

The blueprint was simple, take the crop of young talent in Western Australian junior ranks and develop it into the backbone of an AIHL team. Add serious imported talent to the mix and a strong team is organised that is both capable of challenging short term, developing medium term and dominating long term. ^[1]

Stan's first proposal in 2007 was to invite an AIHL team over to Perth to play in a ‘challenge series’ to test the competitiveness of local talent. The idea was knocked back and Stan Scott was told ‘it could not be done’. In 2009, the campaign to enter the AIHL began to pick up pace. A sustainable business plan was developed, sponsorship and community support was sought and acquired, and plans were drawn up for inviting interstate teams to play matches in WA and for a team to travel interstate to Eastern Australia. Once these key objectives were met, the state would then be in a position to establish a team and apply for an AIHL licence. ^[1]

Establishment

Having met their establishment goals, the Perth Thunder was finally established in 2010 by Stan Scott and John Del Basso. Stan Scott was immediately appointed Thunder general manager (GM). In 2010, through a working contact, Paul Watson (Melbourne Ice head coach), Stan Scott was able to secure the first AIHL opposition for exhibition matches against the Thunder. ^[1] The Thunder, known at that time under the working title of "Western Thunder", travelled to Melbourne to take on the Melbourne Ice and fellow AIHL aspirant, Mustangs Ice Hockey Club. ^[2] The Ice also travelled to Perth. After all the exhibition matches had been played and proved successful, it was clear the team was ready to apply for entry into the AIHL. ^[1] In November 2010, the Thunder was granted a provisional licence for 2011, with a view for the team to enter the league for the 2012 season as the ninth team. ^{[3] [4]}

In 2011, the Thunder worked with the AIHL to find solutions to predicted problems arising from a team in Western Australian joining a league predominantly located in Eastern Australia. Issues such as higher operating costs, extra demands on players and staff, travelling and match scheduling. The Thunder provided their business case to cover these issues and to showcase to the AIHL the benefits Perth and Western Australia could bring to the AIHL. Stan Scott completed his level 3 coaching qualifications to ensure the team would have an appropriately qualified coach at the outset and the team organised more exhibition matches. ^[1] The Thunder travelled to Adelaide in May to play the Adelaide Adrenaline twice. Grabbing a tie and win from those matches. ^[5] In June, the Melbourne Ice travelled to Perth for a two game series at Cockburn Ice Arena. The Ice and Thunder split the series one-all. ^{[6] [7]} In September, the Thunder welcomed the Newcastle North Stars to Perth for a two game series. ^[8] The Thunder won both matches 4–2 to complete a successful season of exhibition games. ^[9] On 22 October 2011, at the AIHL annual general meeting (AGM), the Thunder was officially granted their full licence and joined the AIHL. The team immediately set about preparing for the 2012 AIHL season. ^[10]

AIHL era

In the Thunder's inaugural season in 2012, the team set lofty objectives for itself. The goal was to make finals in their first season. ^[1] The introduction of the Thunder to the league saw the AIHL adopt a conference format for the first time. ^[11] The Thunder was placed in the Easton Conference along with Melbourne Ice, Melbourne Mustangs, Adelaide Adrenaline and Gold Coast Blue Tongues. The top two teams from each of the two conferences qualified for finals. The Thunder enjoyed an up and down first season. Their form was inconsistent. It took some time for the Thunder to settle on consistent first and second lines. However, Perth was one of the few teams in the league in 2012 that implemented a full third line, helping the team towards the end of the season. ^[12] By season's conclusion, the Thunder had won ten from twenty-four matches. They placed fourth in their conference, missing out on finals. ^{[13] [14]} 30 August 2012, Perth held their first ever awards night at the Rosemount Hotel. Canadian import Ken Rolph was named the team's inaugural MVP. Rolph racked up 21 goals and 26 assists during the season to win the award. Best defenceman went to Aaron Wilson, Samuel Wilson was named best local player, while David Kudla took out the most improved award. ^[15]

In 2013, the Thunder, in only their second year in the competition, reached their first ever AIHL finals weekend after finishing third in the league standings for the season. ^[16] Their first finals opposition was the Newcastle North Stars in a semi-final held at the Melbourne Icehouse on 7 September 2013. ^[17] Jordan Kyros was the first Thunder player to score a goal in finals hockey but it proved a consolation goal as the Thunder lost the semi-final match 1–6 with Northstars Canadian import, Pier-Olivier Cotnoir, starting with a hat trick of goals. ^{[18] [19]}

In 2014, prior to the start of the season, the Thunder welcomed a new investor in the team. Robert Cox became partner, director and board member in March 2014. Cox had followed the team since its inception. ^[20] In April, Stan Scott announced that he had stepped down as head coach to focus on the general manager operations of the club. Scott was replaced by Dylan Forsythe as head coach and but Scott remained on the coaching panel as an assistant. ^[21] After eight games into the 2014 season it was announced that Forsythe had stepped down as head coach with immediate effect for unknown reasons. Stan Scott agreed to take over as interim head coach for the remainder of the season. ^[22] The Thunder did not enjoy a good season on the ice in 2014. The team finished seventh in the league standings (second last), the lowest finish in Thunder history. ^[23]

Between 2015 and 2018, the Thunder enjoyed a period of consistency in the league. The team finished third or second each season but failed to win in four consecutive AIHL semi-finals. In 2019, the Thunder broke their finals curse by beating home team, the Newcastle Northstars 3–2 to reach their first ever Goodall Cup final. ^[24] In the final the Thunder came up against the Sydney Bears. ^[25] Perth took a quick 2–0 lead in the first period over the Bears thanks to goals to Louick Marcotte and Kieren Webster. However, the Bears fought back to score five unanswered goals to defeat the Thunder 5–2. ^{[26] [27]}

Ahead of the 2020 season, the Thunder appointed former player Ben Breault as head coach ^[28] after Dave Ruck resigned due to a heavy workload between coaching and his job. ^[29] However, the 2020 season was first postponed ^[30] and then cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19. ^[31] The 2021 season was subsequently also cancelled, resulting in two years without a game for the Thunder. ^[32]

When the 2022 season was announced by the AIHL, it included all eight current AIHL teams participating. ^[33] The AIHL in February 2022 released the regular season schedule and it contained fixtures for all eight teams, home and away. ^[34] In response to the schedule being posted, the Perth Thunder released a public statement on 12 February 2022, confirming the current Western Australian (WA) border restrictions presented challenges for the team to participate in the 2022 season, but that the team would continue to dialog with stakeholders and hope for a swift resolution by the state government. ^[35] On 18 February 2022, the Thunder in conjunction with the AIHL announced the team would withdraw from the 2022 AIHL season due to continued uncertainty surrounding the WA border opening and the limited time left to organise team and travel arrangements prior to the 2022 season kicking off in April. The Thunder did offer its players, staff, fans and sponsors the possibility of exhibition matches being played in Perth in 2022 to compensate for the unfortunate withdrawal. ^[36]

Season-by-season results

Perth Thunder all-time record
Season	Regular season											Finals										Top points scorer
	P	W	T	L	OW	OL	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Finish	P	W	L	GF	GA	Result	Play-In	Semi Final	Preliminary Final	Goodall Cup Final	Name	Points
2012	24	10	–	12	–	2	81	80	+1	32	4th, Easton	–										Phil Ginand	50
2013	28	17	–	9	1	1	127	114	+13	54	3rd	1	–	1	1	6	Semi-finalist	-	Lost 1–6 (North Stars)	–	–	Michael Forney	47
2014	28	9	–	15	2	2	94	94	+0	33	7th	–										Stuart Stefan	44
2015	28	14	–	9	1	4	125	104	+21	48	3rd	1	–	1	–	1	Semi-finalist	-	Lost 0–1 (Ice)	–	–	Toni Kluuskeri	37
2016	28	16	–	7	4	1	96	73	+23	57	2nd	1	–	1	2	3	Semi-finalist	-	Lost 2–3 (OT) (North Stars)	–	–	Benjamin Breault	52
2017	28	16	–	6	3	3	110	75	+35	57	2nd	1	–	1	2	6	Semi-finalist	-	Lost 2–6 (Brave)	–	–	Benjamin Breault	58
2018	28	12	–	10	4	2	111	100	+11	46	3rd	1	–	1	0	3	Semi-finalist	-	Lost 0–3 (Bears)	–	–	Pier-Olivier Grandmaison	67
2019	28	16	–	10	1	1	116	103	+13	51	3rd	1	1	–	3	2	Runner-up	-	Won 3–2 (Northstars)	–	Lost 2–5 (Bears)	Louick Marcotte	62
2020	2020 and 2021 AIHL seasons were cancelled and not contested
2021
2022	Played in 4 exhibition games after withdrawing from the 2022 regular season due to Western Australia border restrictions 1
2023	26	17	–	8	–	1	141	90	+51	52	3rd, Hellyer	2	1	1	5	5	Semi-finalist	Won 4-1 (Northstars)	Lost 1-4 (Brave)	–	–	Conner Jean	48
Totals	246	127	–	86	16	17	1001	833	+168			8	2	6	13	26

¹2022 exhibition record: 4 games, 3 wins, 1 loss, 17 goals scored, 11 goals conceded. 2 additional games against Melbourne Mustangs in Perth were cancelled in mid July 2022.

Champions	Runners-up	Third place

Championships

• Goodall Cup

Champions (0):

Runners-up (1): 2019

• H Newman Reid Trophy (replaced the V.I.P. Cup)

Premiers (0):

Runner-up (2): 2016, 2017

Players

Current roster

Team roster for the 2022 exhibition games. ^{[37] [38]}

Perth Thunder roster - 2022 exhibition games v t e
Active Roster				Coaching staff
Goaltenders 33 Corey Boutin  1 Charles Smart Defencemen  2 Jamie Campbell 21 Jordan Grover  3 Robert Haselhurst  4 Joshua Healey  8 David Kudla 15 Lyndon Lodge 25 Alastair Punler		Forwards 36 Benjamin Breault (C) 42 Liam Campbell 24 Andrew Cox 26 Luke Doyle 17 Liam Jeffries 23 Jordan Kyros 28 Riley Langille 16 Yannic Lodge 55 Reece Lukowiak 26 Jason McMahon  7 Jake Ruck 14 Shaun Tobin 12 Kieran Webster		Head Coach Benjamin Breault Coaches Legend (C) Captain (A) Alternate Captain (I) Import player Statistics Average age: TBD Average height: TBD Average weight: TBD Locals: 22 Imports: 0
Last updated on: 27 January 2023
Elite Prospects

Former players

See also: List of Perth Thunder players

Player records

These are the top-ten all-time/career player records in franchise history, for the following categories: appearances, ^[39] goals, ^[40] assists, ^[41] points, ^[42] and penalty minutes ^[43]
Current as of 2023 AIHL season; figures are updated after each completed AIHL regular season.

All-time Apperiences # Name Pos GP 1 Jordan Kyros F 241 2 Andrew Cox F 231 3 David Kudla D 227 4 Jamie Woodman D 181 5 Robert Haselhurst D 172 6 Jonathon Bremner F 167 7 Kieran Webster F 163 8 Samuel Wilson F 142 9 Ben Breault F 140 10 Alastair Punler D 137

All-time Goals # Name Pos G 1 Ben Breault F 102 2 Andrew Cox F 82 3 Jordan Kyros F 69 4 Ken Rolph F 41 5 Kieran Webster F 40 6 Robert Haselhurst D 39 7 Jessyko Bernard F 38 8 Jonathon Bremner F 38 9 Pier Grandmaison F 28 10 Phil Ginand F 26

All-time Assists # Name Pos A 1 Ben Breault F 141 2 Jordan Kyros F 116 3 Andrew Cox F 107 4 Robert Haselhurst D 91 5 David Kudla D 67 9 Kieran Webster F 59 10 Jamie Woodman D 57 6 Ken Rolph F 52 7 Samuel Wilson D 51 8 Jessyko Bernard F 50

All-time Points # Name Pos Pts 1 Ben Breault F 243 2 Andrew Cox F 189 3 Jordan Kyros F 185 4 Robert Haselhurst D 130 5 Kieran Webster F 99 6 Ken Rolph F 93 7 Jessyko Bernard F 86 8 Jonathon Bremner F 83 9 David Kudla D 72 10 Jamie Woodman D 67

All-time Penalties # Name Pos PIM 1 Bradley Young F 303 2 Robert Haselhurst D 254 3 Andrew Cox F 249 7 Alastair Punler D 206 4 Jonathon Bremner F 182 5 Greg Hyde D 161 6 Daniel Göransson D 159 8 Simon Kudla F 139 9 Samuel Wilson D 131 10 Ben Breault F 117

Team staff

Current as of 2019 AIHL season. ^[44]

Thunder staff

Role	Name
Head coach	David Ruck
Assistant coach	Chris Kostopoulos
Team manager	Richie Lamb
General manager	Stan Scott

Leaders

Team captains

The first captain of the Perth Thunder was Samuel Wilson, who remained captain of the Western Australian team for five consecutive AIHL seasons. The Thunder have had a total of two captains in the team's history. ^[45]

No.	Name	Term
1	Samuel Wilson	2012–16
2	Jamie Woodman	2017–Present

References: ^{[46] [47]}

Further informationon team captains in ice hockey: Captain (ice hockey)

Head coaches

The first Head Coach for the Perth Thunder was Englishman Stan Scott. ^[48] The Thunder have had a total of five head coahces in the team's history. ^[49]

No.	Name	Term
1	Stan Scott	2012–13
2	Dylan Forsythe	2014
3	Stan Scott (interim)	2014
4	Dave Kenway	2015–16
5	Dave Ruck	2017–19
6	Ben Breault	2020–Present

References: ^{[50] [51] [52] [53] [54]}

Further informationon head coaches in ice hockey: Coach (ice hockey)

General managers

Perth Thunder's first and only general manager (GM) to date has been Stan Scott. ^[49]

No.	Name	Term
1	Stan Scott	2012–Present

References: ^[50]

Further informationon general managers in ice hockey: General manager (ice hockey)

Broadcasting

Current:

• Kayo Sports (2022 - present) – Domestic online video broadcasting in Australia as part of the league wide deal struck in the lead up to the 2022 AIHL season to show every AIHL game live. ATC Productions producing the streams. ^[55]
• Sportradar (2022 - present) – International online video broadcasting in North America and Europe as part of a league-wide 3-year deal signed in March 2022 in the lead up to the 2022 AIHL season. ^[56]

Former:

• Fox Sports (2013 – 2019) – Part of the entire AIHL domestic TV broadcasting deal with Fox Sports to show one game a round, normally on Thursdays at 4:30 pm or after NHL games during NHL season. ^[57]
• Mixlr (2016) - In 2016, the Thunder self-broadcast an online audio stream of all home games at the Perth Ice Arena. The organisation used the audio streaming platform Mixlr to deliver the production. ^[58]
• Facebook (2017 - 2019) - Between 2017 and 2019, select Perth Thunder home games were self-broadcast by live stream from the Perth Ice Arena in Malaga on Facebook.

References

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30. Turik, David (12 March 2020). "AIHL Statement on the AIHL Season and the Coronavirus". Australian Ice Hockey League . Retrieved 16 March 2020.
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40. "Perth Thunder – All Time Regular Season Player Stats – G". www.eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
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49. "Perth Thunder - Team Staff History". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
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56. "AIHL partners with Sportradar". icehockeynewsaustralia.com. 24 March 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
57. Brodie, Will (17 April 2013). "Ice hockey gets pay TV boost". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 18 April 2015.
58. "Perth Thunder Game Day Live". Perth Thunder. Retrieved 10 May 2018.

External links

• Ice hockey portal
• Western Australia portal

• Perth Thunder Official Website
• Perth Thunder Official Facebook
• Perth Thunder Official Twitter
• AIHL Official Website