OHL Alumni Central

Ontario Hockey League grad Matt Armstong has recently finished his second successful season in the Australian Ice Hockey League. For the second consecutive year, Armstrong’s team, the Melbourne Ice, has won the Goodall Cup as the league’s playoff champion.

The Ice dominated the AIHL, which plays a 28 game schedule over the North American summer / Australian winter, with a record of 18 wins, 2 losses, 3 overtime wins and 5 overtime losses for 56 points. Matt finished third on the team in scoring and eleventh in the league with 53 points on 16 goals and 37 assists over 27 games.

Armstrong played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03, dressing for the Kitchener Rangers, Peterborough Petes, Plymouth Whalers and Barrie Colts over that time span. His most productive season in the OHL came with the Petes in 2001-02 when he scored 17 and added 21 assists in 65 games.

Undrafted by and NHL club, Armstrong spent two years at Concordia in the Canadian university system. His first year of professional hockey came in 2006-07 with The Hague in Netherlands. He led the last place team in goals (35), assists (37) and points (72) over 40 games. He finished fifth in the league in points and fourth in goals.

Before landing in Australia, Matt spent time in Germany, as well as, a handful of games in North America in the IHL and SPHL. Over 51 career games in the AIHL, Armstrong has registered 97 points.

Doug Groenestege played two games in the Ontario Hockey League between the pipes with the Ottawa 67′s in 2001-02. He came back in 2003-04 and tandemed with David Shantz with the Mississauga IceDogs, putting up better numbers than his partner as the two led their team to the Robertson Cup finals.

Groenestege played 27 of Mississauga’s regular season games in 2003-04 and had a 2.54 goals against average combined with a .912 save percentage. His GAA put him fifth in the league. However, Shantz played all the playoff games and the IceDogs made it to the finals before being swept by the Guelph Storm.

After the Ontario Hockey League, Doug tried out the Canadian university system with the University of British Columbia. In 2005-06, he began his professional hockey career with the Richmond Renegades of the UHL. He followed the team into the Southern Professional Hockey League for the following season.

In 2007-08, Groenestege made his way to the Central Hockey League and has been there until this season. His highlight season to date was 2008-09 with the Oklahoma City Blazers. Doug had the best Goals Against Average in the league with 2.10. His save percentage was .922, third in the league and he was the runner-up for the league’s best goaltender.

Groenestege spent the 2010-11 season with the Arizona Sundogs, a team that he was traded to the season before. No longer on the team’s roster, Doug has signed on for a summer with the all-new Mustangs in Australia’s AIHL. The AIHL season starts next month and has been featuring more and more Ontario Hockey League grads over the past few years. The Mustangs bring the number of teams in the league up to eight. The team plays out of Melbourne, Australia.

Pre-season? In Australia’s AIHL, they’re starting to ramp up for the late April start to the hockey season. Two players with experience with the 2010 playoff champion Melbourne Ice, and Ontario Hockey League grads, are committed to return for the 2011 season. One will remain with the Ice while the other moves across town to the expansion Mustangs.

Matt Armstrong finished 2010 with 44 points in 24 games and was ninth in the league. Armstrong played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03. He began with the Kitchener Rangers and was traded to the Peterborough Petes in 2000-01. He played the full 2001-02 season with Peterborough before splitting his final season between the Plymouth Whalers and Barrie Colts.

Matt’s professional career has consisted of play in the Netherlands and Germany as well as short stints in the IHL and SPHL. Armstrong did not play during the traditional 2010-11 season.

Scott Corbett played two seasons with the Sarnia Sting, 1995-96 and 1996-97. Corbett last played during the 2007-08 season. He played winter hockey in Germany’s Oberliga and finished up with ten games in a Melbourne Ice uniform.

Scott has played professionally in Great Britain and Germany as well as the ECHL and SPHL in North America. Corbett returned to hockey with the Docklands Mustangs for the 2011 season. Docklands is a section of Melbourne.

Check out this previous post on Matt Armstrong at OHL Alumni Central.

Visit the AIHL official website – more OHL grads will be signing up for the 2011 season and the site is the best place for updates.

Alan Letang began his Ontario Hockey League career with the Cornwall Royals in 1991-92 and followed the franchise to Newmarket and ended up with them as they began new life as the Sarnia Sting in 1994-95. Letang played a total of four years in the OHL, one in Cornwall, two with the Royals in Newmarket and one in Sarnia.

Letang was chosen by the Montreal Canadiens in the eighth round of the 1993 NHL draft, 203rd overall. He spent his first two seasons of professional hockey with Montreal’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Fredericton Canadiens, but never played a game with the NHL squad.

However, over his sixteen year professional hockey career to date, Alan has played in fourteen NHL games. His time in the NHL was split between the Dallas Stars, Calgary Flames and the New York Islanders. Most of Letang’s North American hockey was played in the AHL and the old IHL.

After earlier dabbling in the European pro game during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 (split between the Canadian National Team and Zug of Switzerland’s National League A) seasons, Letang returned for good in 2004-05. After a four year run in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) with the Hamburg Freezers and Nürnberg Ice Tigers, Alan moved to Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga where he currently plays.

After a season with HC Innsbruck in 2008-09, Alan switched to Medvescak Zagreb for the 2009-10 season. Letang is currently in a familiar role as the captain of Zagreb and the team sits right in the middle of the EBEL standings, fifth out of ten teams. Zagreb is located in nearby Croatia and is now one of four non-Austrian teams in the league. The others being Ljubljana and Jesenice of Slovenia and Székesfehérvár of Hungary.

Alan’s profile on the Zagreb official website can be found by clicking his name on the team’s roster page.

Alan has previously appeared in these two posts at OHL Alumni Central:

Sarnia Sting alumni active in pro hockey during the 2009-10 season

Newmarket Royals alumni active in pro hockey during the 2009-10 season

Kurt MacSweyn was an original Brampton Battalion. He began his Ontario Hockey League career in the Bunker in 1998-99, the Battalion’s first OHL season. MacSweyn went on to a four year career with Brampton before three years in the Canadian university system with St. Mary’s.

Kurt has just signed on as yet another OHL grad playing in Australia’s AIHL. He joins fellow OHL alumnus, Matt Armstrong, on the Melbourne Ice. After just four games, Kurt was ripping it up with 13 points in four games for the second place team.

During the 2009-10 winter season, Kurt played in Hungary with Dunaujvaros. His professional career began in 2005-06 with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL. That would be his only season in North America. He has since played in Germany, Austria and Italy as well as Hungary.

Here’s Kurt MacSweyn’s profile page on the Dunaujvaros official website.

Here’s Kurt MacSweyn’s profile page on the Melbourne Ice official website.