AIHL Bears

Hockey team
team = AIHL Bears

logosize =
city = Penrith, New South Wales
league = AIHL
founded = 2000
arena = Penrith Ice Palace
colours = Red, black, silver and white
coach = Vlady Rubes
GM = Gabriel Robledo / Rick Williams / Wayne Hellyer
affiliates =
parentclub =
farmclub =
name1 = Sydney Bears
dates1 = 2000-2007
name2 = AIHL Bears
dates2 = 2007-presentThe AIHL Bears are a semi-professional ice hockey team in the Australian Ice Hockey League. The team plays its home games at the Penrith Ice Palace in Penrith, on the western outskirts of Sydney, New South Wales. The team previously played at the Sydney Ice Arena in Baulkham Hills under the name Sydney Bears, but announced they would move to Penrith for the 2007 AIHL season, dropping the "Sydney" from their name.

The Bears are two-time winners of the Goodall Cup and won the AIHL championship in 2002 and 2007. The Bears were one of three teams that founded the AIHL in 2000, along with the Adelaide Avalanche and Canberra Knights. Although the Bears did not win the championship in either year, they won the Goodall Cup tournament in 2001 in Newcastle, the last time the Cup was awarded independently of the AIHL.

In 2002, the Bears defeated the Avalanche in the Goodall Cup final for their second consecutive Cup and their first and only AIHL championship to date.

Four members of the Bears - Tyler Lovering, Brett Nelson-Bond, Vladimir Rubes and Murray Wand - were named to the Mighty Roos roster for the 2006 Division II World Championships in New Zealand.

Championships

:Goodall Cup: 2002, 2007

:V.I.P. Cup: 2008

Trivia

*The Bears were forced out of the Sydney Ice Arena during the latter half of the 2006 AIHL season as filming of the Nine Network TV show, "Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice", was taking place there. The Bears played home games in Liverpool and Penrith during this period.

External links

* [http://www.thebears.com.au The Bears official website]