The 2019–20 AWIHL season is the thirteenth season of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). It ran from 26 October 2019 until 2 February 2020. Five teams competed in 30 regular season games followed by 4 playoff games, making up the AWIHL Finals weekend. The Sydney Sirens 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. Adelaide Rush finished runner-up to both titles and the Brisbane Goannas claimed the wooden spoon.

Teams

In 2019–20 the AWIHL had five teams from five Australian state capital cities competing, stretching east to west of the continent.

2019–20 AWIHL teamsTeam City Arena Head Coach Captain Adelaide Rush Adelaide IceArenA Hayden Crafter Kirsty Venus Brisbane Goannas Brisbane Boondall Iceworld Darryl Dunsford Jess Wytrykusz Melbourne Ice Melbourne O'Brien Icehouse Marcus Wong Christina Julien Perth Inferno Perth Cockburn Ice Arena Paul Graham Courtney Moulton Sydney Sirens Sydney Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink Jayden Ryan Stephenie Cochrane

League Business

The official AWIHL gameday schedule was released at the end of September 2019. The season structure remained unchanged from 2018 to 2019, with each team playing two of the four opponents in a four-game series with the other two teams being played twice during the season. The AWIHL announced on 4 October a new travel partnership with SportsLink Travel, that would provide the five teams in the league a cost equalisation program for airfares and bus transfers. In November 2019, the league struck an agreement with Kayo Sports to stream a 'game of the week' and 20 minutes of highlights and player interviews for the 2019–20 season on Kayo's nationally available streaming service.

Regular season

Fixtures & results Running between 26 October 2019 and 19 January 2020, the AWIHL regular season consisted of 30 games in total. On 17 January 2020, the AWIHL commission decided to treat the 12 January 2020 game between Melbourne Ice and Perth Inferno as a draw and award both teams 1 point each. Initially the Inferno were awarded 2 points for winning in overtime, however the game did not progress to a shootout and a 3v3 overtime period was played instead, against league regulations.

October OctoberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 1 26 October 2019 16:00 Perth Inferno 4–7 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 2 27 October 2019 09:30 Perth Inferno 5–6 Adelaide Rush IceArenA

November NovemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 3 2 November 2019 16:00 Melbourne Ice 3–1 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 4 2 November 2019 17:00 Perth Inferno 9–10 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink 5 3 November 2019 09:30 Perth Inferno 3–7 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink 6 3 November 2019 15:15 Melbourne Ice 1–3 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 7 9 November 2019 17:30 Adelaide Rush 7–5 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 8 10 November 2019 08:15 Adelaide Rush 4–3 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 9 16 November 2019 17:00 Brisbane Goannas 1–12 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink 10 17 November 2019 09:30 Brisbane Goannas 1–10 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink 11 23 November 2019 16:00 Brisbane Goannas 1–7 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 12 23 November 2019 16:00 Sydney Sirens 3–2 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 13 24 November 2019 09:30 Brisbane Goannas 0–7 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 14 24 November 2019 13:15 Sydney Sirens 3–1 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 15 30 November 2019 16:00 Adelaide Rush 2–0 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld

December DecemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 16 1 December 2019 15:15 Adelaide Rush 6–2 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 17 7 December 2019 16:00 Perth Inferno 4–6 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 18 7 December 2019 16:00 Sydney Sirens 3–4 (SO) Adelaide Rush IceArenA 19 8 December 2019 09:30 Sydney Sirens 6–5 (SO) Adelaide Rush IceArenA 20 8 December 2019 13:15 Perth Inferno 4–7 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 21 14 December 2019 20:30 Melbourne Ice 3–4 (SO) Sydney Sirens Penrith Ice Palace 22 15 December 2019 09:30 Melbourne Ice 7–5 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink

January JanuaryGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 23 11 January 2020 16:00 Sydney Sirens 5–1 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 24 11 January 2020 18:00 Melbourne Ice 7–2 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 25 12 January 2020 12:30 Melbourne Ice Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 26 12 January 2020 15:15 Sydney Sirens 7–4 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 27 18 January 2020 16:00 Adelaide Rush 2–4 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 28 18 January 2020 18:00 Brisbane Goannas 1–4 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 29 19 January 2020 12:30 Brisbane Goannas 1–9 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 30 19 January 2020 13:15 Adelaide Rush 2–3 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse

Key: Winner Draw

Standings

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

GoalsNo. Name 1 Kayla Nielsen Forward 172 Nadine Edney Forward 173 Natasha Farrier Forward 164 Nora Maclaine Forward 135 Christina Julien Forward 12AssistsNo. Name 1 Kayla Nielsen Forward 142 Nadine Edney Forward 133 Natasha Farrier Forward 124 Sharna Godfrey Forward 125 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 11PointsNo. Name 1 Kayla Nielsen Forward 312 Nadine Edney Forward 303 Natasha Farrier Forward 284 Nora Maclaine Forward 235 Sharna Godfrey Forward 22 Penalty minutesNo. Name 1 Tracy Hocutt Forward 402 Sarah Dash Defender 373 Nicole Jones Forward 364 Rylie Ellis Defender 345 Courtney Moulton Forward 30Save percentageNo. Name 1 Tina Girdler Goaltender 0.9152 Makayla Peers Goaltender 0.9113 Jenelle Carson Goaltender 0.8934 Sasha King Goaltender 0.8825 Michelle Coonan Goaltender 0.881Goals against averageNo. Name 1 Tina Girdler Goaltender 2.202 Makayla Peers Goaltender 2.333 Joanne Phillis Goaltender 2.574 Michelle Coonan Goaltender 3.055 Jenelle Carson Goaltender 3.13

Season awards

Below lists the 2019–20 AWIHL regular season award winners.

Award Name TeamSkaters Network Most Valuable Player Natasha Farrier Adelaide RushBest Forward Kayla Nielsen Sydney SirensBest Defence Sarah Edney Sydney SirensBest Goaltender Michelle Coonan Adelaide RushNellie Gee Rookie of the Year Courtney Mahoney Brisbane Goannas

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 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 2019–20, the Sirens, Rush, Ice and Inferno qualified for the finals weekend. In late January 2020, the AWIHL released an annual finals promo video to promote the event as well as naming the officials for the weekend. The event was held on 1 and 2 February 2020 in host city Melbourne at O’Brien Icehouse. Sydney and Adelaide won on Saturday to advance to the Joan McKowen Final, with Perth and Melbourne heading to the third place playoff. Melbourne Ice won playoff on Sunday to secure third place for the season, Perth finishing fourth. In the grand final, Sydney Sirens produced a strong display to shutout the Rush and secure the Championship title and the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy. It is the second championship title in Sirens history.

Semi-finals

Third place playoff

Final

GoldSilverBronze Sydney Sirens Adelaide Rush Melbourne Ice

References

External links Australian Women's Hockey League Ice Hockey Australia