2018–19 AWIHL season

2018–19 AWIHL season
League	Australian Women's Ice Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	27 October 2018 – 10 March 2019
Regular season
Premiers	Melbourne Ice
Season MVP	Sharna Godfrey (Sydney Sirens)
Top scorer	Christina Julien (37 points) (Melbourne Ice)
Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy
Champions	Melbourne Ice (7th title)
Runners-up	Sydney Sirens

The 2018–19 AWIHL season is the 12th season of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). It ran from 27 October 2018 until 10 March 2019. Five teams competed in 30 regular season games followed by 4 playoff games, making up the AWIHL Finals weekend. The Melbourne Ice claimed the double by winning both the premiership title for finishing top of the regular season standings and the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy championship title by winning the grand final. Sydney Sirens finished runner-up to both titles and the Adelaide Rush claimed the wooden spoon.

Teams

In 2018–19 the AWIHL had five teams from five Australian state capital cities competing, stretching east to west of the continent.

2018–19 AWIHL teams

Team	City	Arena	Head Coach	Captain
Adelaide Rush	Adelaide	IceArenA	Jamie Holland	Candice Mitchell
Brisbane Goannas	Brisbane	Boondall Iceworld	Matthew Gilpin	Tracy Hocutt
Melbourne Ice	Melbourne	O'Brien Group Arena	Marcus Wong
Perth Inferno	Perth	Cockburn Ice Arena	Paul Graham
Sydney Sirens	Sydney	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	Jeff Helbren

League Business

The AWIHL officially expanded for the first time on 9 August 2018, with the admission of expansion team Perth Inferno from Perth, Western Australia. The official AWIHL gameday schedule was released at the end of August 2018. The season structure had changed from 2017–18 thanks to the addition of a fifth team, with each team now playing two of the four opponents in a four-game series with the other two teams being played twice during the season.

Regular season

Fixtures & results

Running between 27 October 2018 and 24 February 2019, the AWIHL regular season consisted of 30 games in total, with teams playing 12 games each.

October

October
Game #	Date	Time	Away	Score	Home	Location	Recap
1	27 October 2018	17:00	Brisbane Goannas	1–12	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Group Arena	[1]
2	28 October 2018	13:15	Brisbane Goannas	0–7	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Group Arena	[2]

November

November
Game #	Date	Time	Away	Score	Home	Location	Recap
3	3 November 2018	17:00	Melbourne Ice	4–3	Sydney Sirens	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	[3]
4	4 November 2018	09:15	Melbourne Ice	3–1	Sydney Sirens	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	[4]
5	10 November 2018	16:00	Perth Inferno	11–4	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[5]
6	11 November 2018	09:30	Perth Inferno	6–0	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[6]
7	24 November 2018	16:00	Brisbane Goannas	3–5	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[7]
8	24 November 2018	18:00	Sydney Sirens	9–2	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[8]
9	25 November 2018	07:00	Sydney Sirens	8–1	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[9]
10	25 November 2018	09:30	Brisbane Goannas	1–2	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[10]

December

December
Game #	Date	Time	Away	Score	Home	Location	Recap
11	1 December 2018	16:00	Sydney Sirens	4–3 (SO)	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld	[11]
12	2 December 2018	07:00	Sydney Sirens	6–1	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld	[12]
13	8 December 2018	17:00	Perth Inferno	3–9	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Group Arena	[13]
14	9 December 2018	13:15	Perth Inferno	1–5	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Group Arena	[14]
15	15 December 2018	17:00	Adelaide Rush	1–6	Sydney Sirens	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	[15]
16	16 December 2018	09:15	Adelaide Rush	0–8	Sydney Sirens	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	[16]

January

January
Game #	Date	Time	Away	Score	Home	Location	Recap
17	12 January 2019	16:00	Adelaide Rush	0–3	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld	[17]
18	13 January 2019	07:00	Adelaide Rush	5–6	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld	[18]
19	19 January 2019	18:00	Melbourne Ice	4–8	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[19]
20	20 January 2019	09:30	Melbourne Ice	7–2	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[20]

February

February
Game #	Date	Time	Away	Score	Home	Location	Recap
21	2 February 2019	17:00	Sydney Sirens	6–7	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Group Arena	[21]
22	2 February 2019	18:00	Adelaide Rush	2–10	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[22]
23	3 February 2019	09:30	Adelaide Rush	3–10	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[23]
24	3 February 2019	13:15	Sydney Sirens	4–3 (SO)	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Group Arena	[24]
25	16 February 2019	17:00	Brisbane Goannas	1–10	Sydney Sirens	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	[25]
26	17 February 2019	09:15	Brisbane Goannas	0–8	Sydney Sirens	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	[26]
27	23 February 2019	16:00	Perth Inferno	4–3	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld	[27]
28	23 February 2019	16:00	Melbourne Ice	10–3	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[28]
29	24 February 2019	07:00	Perth Inferno	4–2	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld	[29]
30	24 February 2019	09:30	Melbourne Ice	6–3	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[30]

Key:

Winner

Draw

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Melbourne Ice (C)	12	10	0	1	1	77	35	+42	31	2019 Joan McKowen Finals
2	Sydney Sirens	12	7	2	0	3	73	26	+47	25
3	Perth Inferno	12	7	0	0	5	62	56	+6	21
4	Brisbane Goannas	12	2	0	1	9	24	67	−43	7
5	Adelaide Rush	12	2	0	0	10	28	80	−52	6

Source: AWIHL Elite Prospects
Rules for classification:
Tie-break: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
Points: 3 points for regulation win; 2 points for OT or SO win; 1 point for OT or SO loss or tie/draw; 0 points for regulation loss
(C) Champion

Player stats

The season's league leader statistics for skaters and goaltenders.

Goals No. Name Pos G 1 Christina Julien Forward 24 2 Sharna Godfrey Forward 16 3 Bettina Meyers Forward 11 4 Ashlie Aparicio Forward 10 5 Courtney Moulton Forward 8

Assists No. Name Pos A 1 Elizabeth Scala Forward 20 2 Sharna Godfrey Forward 18 3 Bettina Meyers Forward 15 4 Christina Julien Forward 13 5 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 13

Points No. Name Pos P 1 Christina Julien Forward 37 2 Sharna Godfrey Forward 34 3 Elizabeth Scala Forward 32 4 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 29 5 Bettina Meyers Forward 26

Penalty minutes No. Name Pos PIM 1 Kirsty Venus Defender 30 2 Isla Malcolm Defender 22 3 Christina Julien Forward 18 4 Bettina Meyers Forward 18 5 Courtney Moulton Forward 18

Save percentage No. Name Pos SV% 1 Sera Dogramaci Goaltender 0.913 2 Ruth Brophy Goaltender 0.904 3 Paula Morris Goaltender 0.900 4 Olivia Last Goaltender 0.900 5 Ella Licari Goaltender 0.892

Goals against average No. Name Pos GAA 1 Paula Morris Goaltender 1.33 2 Sera Dogramaci Goaltender 2.20 3 Jenelle Carson Goaltender 2.71 4 Olivia Last Goaltender 2.84 5 Ruth Brophy Goaltender 3.00

Season awards

Below lists the 2018–19 AWIHL regular season award winners.

Award	Name	Team
Skaters Network Most Valuable Player	Sharna Godfrey	Sydney Sirens
Best Forward	Christina Julien	Melbourne Ice
Best Defence	Amelia Matheson	Sydney Sirens
Best Goaltender	Sera Dogramaci	Sydney Sirens
Nellie Gee Rookie of the Year	Olivia Last	Sydney Sirens

Joan McKowen playoffs

The top four teams in the AWIHL regular season qualify for the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy playoffs. The playoffs is held on a single weekend and uses Australian conventions of being called Finals. The playoff system used by the AWIHL is a four team single game semi-finals and grand final system where the semi-final winners progress to the grand final and the losers playoff for third place. Semi-finals are played on the Saturday and the third place playoff and grand final is played on the Sunday. The prize for being crowned AWIHL Champions for winning the grand final is the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy.

In 2018–19, the Inferno, Sirens, Goannas and Ice qualified for the finals weekend. The event was held on 9 March to 10 March 2019 in host city Adelaide at the IceArenA. Sydney and Melbourne won the semi-finals on Saturday by comfortable margins to advance to the Joan McKowen grand final. On Sunday Perth defeated Brisbane in the third place playoff to finish their maiden season third with bronze medals. Melbourne beat Sydney to claim the championship title and lift the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy for a record seventh time.

	Semi-finals				Joan McKowen Final
	9 March - Adelaide
	Perth Inferno	3
					10 March - Adelaide
	Sydney Sirens	6
					Sydney Sirens	3
	9 March - Adelaide
					Melbourne Ice	4
	Brisbane Goannas	2
	Melbourne Ice	9
					Third place
					10 March - Adelaide
					Brisbane Goannas	3
					Perth Inferno	6

Semi-finals

9 March 2019 10:00

Perth Inferno

3–6 (1–2, 1–1, 1–3)

Sydney Sirens

IceArenA

Game reference
	Keesha Atkins	Goalies	Sera Dogramaci	Referee: Gabby Aston Linesmen: Mitch Brown Sam Ellis
	0 – 1 McOnie (Unassisted) 0 – 2 McOnie (Cochrane) (Sharp) Scala 1 – 2 1 – 3 Beaver (Chia, Embrey) (C.Poole) M.Poole 2 – 3 2 – 4 McOnie (Unassisted) 2 – 5 Walker (Unassisted) (Unassisted) Scala 3 – 5 3 – 6 Godfrey (Matheson)
	12 min	Penalties	8 min
	40	Shots	43

9 March 2019 16:00

Brisbane Goannas

2–9 (0–2, 2–5, 0–2)

Melbourne Ice

IceArenA Attendance: 150

Game reference
	Tina Girdler	Goalies	Ruth Brophy	Referee: Dave Gal Linesmen: Ian Hunter Josef Rezek
	0 – 1 Aparicio (Meyers) 0 – 2 Aparicio (Meyers) 0 – 3 Lo (Pullin) 0 – 4 Julien (Unassisted) 0 – 5 Pullin (Moore) 0 – 6 van der Wolf (Diduszko) (Hocutt) Roberts 1 – 6 (MacDonald) Roberts 2 – 6 2 – 7 Julien (van der Wolf) 2 – 8 Julien (Ellis) 2 – 9 Carson (Ellis, Jones)
	6 min	Penalties	12 min
	15	Shots	40

Third place playoff

10 March 2019 13:30

Brisbane Goannas

3–6 (0–2, 1–2, 2–2)

Perth Inferno

IceArenA

Game reference
	Taylah Pearson	Goalies	Ella Licari	Referee: Dave Gal Linesmen: Ian Hunter Sam Ellis
	0 – 1 Cookson (Malcolm) 0 – 2 Nottle (Minney-Smith) 0 – 3 Clark-Crumpton (Moulton) (Carbone) Roberts 1 – 3 1 – 4 Clark-Crumpton (Moulton, Sharp) 1 – 5 Clark-Crumpton (Moulton) (Wytrykusz, Roberts) Carbone 2 – 5 (Haley) Brown 3 – 5 3 – 6 McMahon (Clark-Crumpton)
	6 min	Penalties	24 min
	32	Shots	37

Final

10 March 2019 18:00

Sydney Sirens

3–4 (1–2, 2–0, 0–2)

Melbourne Ice

IceArenA

Game reference
	Sera Dogramaci	Goalies	Jenelle Carson	Referee: Gabby Aston Linesmen: Josef Rezek Mitch Brown
	0 – 1 Ellis (Meyers, Julien) 0 – 2 Julien (Unassisted) (Unassisted) Godfrey 1 – 2 (Unassisted) McOnie 2 – 2 (Matheson) Beaver 3 – 2 3 – 3 Scheuerlein (Aparicio) 3 – 4 Meyers (Unassisted)
	16 min	Penalties	24 min
	41	Shots	34

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Melbourne Ice	Sydney Sirens	Perth Inferno

External links

• Australian Women's Hockey League Archived 4 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine
• Ice Hockey Australia