The Dunedin Thunder, currently the Phoenix Thunder for sponsorship reasons, is an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

team based in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, New Zealand and are members of the

New Zealand Ice Hockey League The NZIHL is New Zealand’s national ice hockey league. It is an amateur league that was formed in 2005 to develop the sport in New Zealand and to give the top players regular competition against each other to improve the skill level of the game ...

. The club plays their home games at the

Dunedin Ice Stadium Dunedin Ice Stadium is an indoor ice sports and public skate centre, that opened in October 2004. It is located in the New Zealand city of Dunedin, in the southern suburb of Saint Kilda. The stadium is owned by Dunedin Ice Sports Inc. and is th ...

. The Thunder were founded in 2008 and joined the league as an expansion team. The clubs won their first regular season title in 2013 and have finished as runner-up in the playoffs in 2013 and 2014, losing on both occasions to the

Canterbury Red Devils The Canterbury Red Devils is an ice hockey team based in Christchurch, New Zealand and are members of the New Zealand Ice Hockey League. The club plays their home games at the Alpine Ice Centre. Since their foundation in 2005 the team have won ...

History

Dunedin Thunder v West Auckland Admirals, 03 July 2021 (1)

The Dunedin Thunder were founded in 2008 and joined the

, expanding the league to five teams. In their debut season the Thunder finished the regular season in last place, managing only one win from their 12 games. The team repeated their last place finish in the 2009 season, again finishing the season with only a single win. The Thunder improved from 2010 to 2012, finishing the regular season in fourth on two occasions and third in the 2012 season. In 2013 the Thunder claimed their first regular season title after finishing on 32 points and edging out the

only on win percentage. The team advanced to the final against the Red Devils however lost the game 3–7. The following season the Thunder returned to the finals after finishing the regular season in second place. The team however went on to lose for the second year in a row to the Red Devils. In the 2015 season the Thunder finished the regular season in fourth place and failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Season by season results

Players and personnel

Current roster

''Team roster for the 2016 NZIHL season''

Team captains

*Andre Robichaud, 2013–2014 *Gino Heyd, 2015 *Gints Leitis, Ryan Gruszka, Connor Harrison, Regan Wilson 2016

Head coaches

*James van Leeuwen, 2010–2011 *János Kaszala, 2012–2016 *Matt Hladun, 2017–''present''

General managers

*Drew McMillian, 2014 *Pete Hurring, 2015 *Guillaume Leclancher, 2016 *Alexis Robin, 2017–''present'' Richard Audas

References

External links

Dunedin Thunder
{{Ice hockey in New Zealand 2008 establishments in New Zealand Ice hockey clubs established in 2008 Ice hockey teams in New Zealand New Zealand Ice Hockey League teams Organisations based in Dunedin Sport in Dunedin