The 2022–23 AWIHL season is the 14th season of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). It runs from 5 November 2022 until 19 March 2023. Five teams compete in 30 regular season games followed by 4 playoff games, making up the AWIHL Finals weekend. The Sydney Sirens claimed the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy championship title by winning the grand final. The Melbourne Ice claimed the Stephanie Boxall Trophy premiership title for finishing top of the regular season standings. The Sirens finished runner-up in the regular season and the Adelaide Rush claimed the wooden spoon.

Teams

In 2022–23 the AWIHL had five teams from five Australian state capital cities competing, stretching east to west of the continent.

2022–23 AWIHL teamsTeam City Arena Head coach Captain Adelaide Rush Adelaide IceArenA Joey MacDougall Natalie Ayris Brisbane Lightning Brisbane Boondall Iceworld Tom Harkness Kelly Costa Melbourne Ice Melbourne O'Brien Icehouse Rod Johns & Andrew Marshall Sarah Dash Perth Inferno Perth Cockburn Ice Arena Graham Hyde Marina Nottle Sydney Sirens Sydney Macquarie Ice Rink Jayden Ryan Sarah Edney

League Business

The official AWIHL gameday schedule was released at the beginning of October 2022. The season structure remained unchanged from 2019 to 2020, 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. Ahead of the new season, after a two-year absence due to COVID-19 outbreaks and subsequent lockdown and travel restrictions, AWIHL Commissioner, Melissa Rulli, stepped down from her role. She held the position for almost five years, having secured the position in December 2017. The Brisbane Goannas announced they had signed and agreement with the Brisbane Lightning organisation to merge their organisations. The Goannas would re-brand themselves as the Lightning for the season ahead. At the end of October, the league and Cluch signed a broadcasting deal for every game of the season to be broadcast live and free on Cluch's streaming platform. The streams would be available worldwide, with no region locking. In January, Perth Inferno released a special one-off Cancer Awareness jersey that will be worn in a game on 4 February 2023 and then auctioned off post-game to support Cancer Council Western Australia.

Staffing changes for 2022-23 included Brisbane naming Tom Harkness as their new head coach, with Matt Meyer and Ben Stadtmiller to assist him. Adelaide appointed Joey MacDougall as their new head coach and the vastly experienced Jim Fuyarchuk as assistant coach. Melbourne Ice changed their coaching lineup for 2022-23. Rod Johns, Bryan Mackenzie and Andrew Marshall were appointed team coaches, replacing Marcus Wong, Mark Smith and Laurie Piggot.

Regular season

Fixtures & results Running between 5 November 2022 and 5 March 2023, the AWIHL regular season consisted of 30 games in total, with teams playing 12 games each.

November NovemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 1 5 November 2022 16:30 Brisbane Lightning 3–8 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 2 6 November 2022 08:15 Brisbane Lightning 4–5 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 3 12 November 2022 16:00 Melbourne Ice 7–2 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 4 12 November 2022 17:00 Perth Inferno 2–3 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 5 13 November 2022 10:00 Melbourne Ice 7–0 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 6 13 November 2022 16:30 Perth Inferno 4–2 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 7 19 November 2022 16:30 Sydney Sirens 9–6 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 8 20 November 2022 10:00 Sydney Sirens 6–5 (OT) Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 9 26 November 2022 16:30 Adelaide Rush 0–9 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 10 27 November 2022 08:15 Adelaide Rush 1–3 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink

December DecemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 11 3 December 2022 17:00 Adelaide Rush 1–4 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 12 4 December 2022 13:30 Adelaide Rush 3–4 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 13 17 December 2022 17:00 Brisbane Lightning 0–2 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 14 18 December 2022 13:30 Brisbane Lightning 1–7 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse

January JanuaryGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 15 7 January 2002 16:00 Perth Inferno 3–5 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 16 7 January 2002 17:00 Sydney Sirens 3–7 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 17 8 January 2002 07:00 Sydney Sirens 4–3 (OT) Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 18 8 January 2002 10:00 Perth Inferno 10–7 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 19 14 January 2002 17:00 Sydney Sirens 2–3 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse 20 15 January 2002 13:30 Sydney Sirens 4–3 (OT) Melbourne Ice O'Brien Icehouse

February FebruaryGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 21 4 February 2022 16:30 Adelaide Rush 1–4 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 22 5 February 2022 10:00 Adelaide Rush 5–3 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 23 11 February 2022 16:30 Perth Inferno 0–6 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 24 11 February 2022 17:00 Melbourne Ice 1–2 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 25 12 February 2022 07:00 Melbourne Ice 4–3 (SO) Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 26 12 February 2022 08:15 Perth Inferno 5–7 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink

March MarchGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 27 4 March 2022 16:00 Brisbane Lightning 5–4 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 28 4 March 2022 16:30 Melbourne Ice 1–3 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 29 5 March 2022 10:00 Brisbane Lightning 6–2 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 30 5 March 2022 10:00 Melbourne Ice 4–3 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena Key: Winner Draw

Standings

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

GoalsNo. Name 1 Elizabeth Scala Forward 152 Danielle Butler Forward 153 Sarah Edney Forward 134 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 125 Linda Bjorling Forward 10AssistsNo. Name 1 Elizabeth Scala Forward 132 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 133 Sharna Godfrey Forward 124 Linda Bjorling Forward 115 Chrystina Acker Forward 9PointsNo. Name 1 Elizabeth Scala Forward 282 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 253 Danielle Butler Forward 234 Sharna Godfrey Forward 215 Linda Bjorling Forward 21 Penalty minutesNo. Name 1 Sharna Godfrey Forward 392 Chrystina Acker Forward 343 Kristelle Van Der Wolf Forward 334 Katrina Rapchuk Forward 315 Sharnita Crompton Forward 26Save percentageNo. Name 1 Makayla Peers Goaltender .9362 Jenelle Carson Goaltender .9303 Sera Dogramaci Goaltender .9154 Imogen Perry Goaltender .9075 Sasha King Goaltender .882Goals against averageNo. Name 1 Makayla Peers Goaltender 1.562 Jenelle Carson Goaltender 2.133 Imogen Perry Goaltender 2.814 Sera Dogramaci Goaltender 2.875 Tina Girdler Goaltender 3.50

Season awards

Below lists the 2022–23 AWIHL regular season award winners.

Award Name TeamBest Forward Danielle Butler Melbourne IceBest Defence Sarah Edney Sydney SirensBest Goaltender Makayla Peers Melbourne IceNellie Gee Rookie of the Year Katrina Rapchuk Brisbane Lightning

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 2022–23, the Ice, Sirens, Lightning and Inferno qualified for the finals weekend. The event was held on 18–19 in host city Melbourne at O’Brien Icehouse.

Semi-finals

Third place playoff

Final

GoldSilverBronze Sydney Sirens Melbourne Ice Perth Inferno

References

External links Australian Women's Hockey League Ice Hockey Australia