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 teamsTeam 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 OctoberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 1 27 October 2018 17:00 Brisbane Goannas 1–12 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Group Arena 2 28 October 2018 13:15 Brisbane Goannas 0–7 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Group Arena

November NovemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 3 3 November 2018 17:00 Melbourne Ice 4–3 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink 4 4 November 2018 09:15 Melbourne Ice 3–1 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink 5 10 November 2018 16:00 Perth Inferno 11–4 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 6 11 November 2018 09:30 Perth Inferno 6–0 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 7 24 November 2018 16:00 Brisbane Goannas 3–5 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 8 24 November 2018 18:00 Sydney Sirens 9–2 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 9 25 November 2018 07:00 Sydney Sirens 8–1 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 10 25 November 2018 09:30 Brisbane Goannas 1–2 Adelaide Rush IceArenA

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

January JanuaryGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 17 12 January 2019 16:00 Adelaide Rush 0–3 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 18 13 January 2019 07:00 Adelaide Rush 5–6 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 19 19 January 2019 18:00 Melbourne Ice 4–8 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 20 20 January 2019 09:30 Melbourne Ice 7–2 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena

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

Key: Winner Draw

Standings

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

GoalsNo. Name 1 Christina Julien Forward 242 Sharna Godfrey Forward 163 Bettina Meyers Forward 114 Ashlie Aparicio Forward 105 Courtney Moulton Forward 8AssistsNo. Name 1 Elizabeth Scala Forward 202 Sharna Godfrey Forward 183 Bettina Meyers Forward 154 Christina Julien Forward 135 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 13PointsNo. Name 1 Christina Julien Forward 372 Sharna Godfrey Forward 343 Elizabeth Scala Forward 324 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 295 Bettina Meyers Forward 26 Penalty minutesNo. Name 1 Kirsty Venus Defender 302 Isla Malcolm Defender 223 Christina Julien Forward 184 Bettina Meyers Forward 185 Courtney Moulton Forward 18Save percentageNo. Name 1 Sera Dogramaci Goaltender 0.9132 Ruth Brophy Goaltender 0.9043 Paula Morris Goaltender 0.9004 Olivia Last Goaltender 0.9005 Ella Licari Goaltender 0.892Goals against averageNo. Name 1 Paula Morris Goaltender 1.332 Sera Dogramaci Goaltender 2.203 Jenelle Carson Goaltender 2.714 Olivia Last Goaltender 2.845 Ruth Brophy Goaltender 3.00

Season awards

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

Award Name TeamSkaters Network Most Valuable Player Sharna Godfrey Sydney SirensBest Forward Christina Julien Melbourne IceBest Defence Amelia Matheson Sydney SirensBest Goaltender Sera Dogramaci Sydney SirensNellie 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

Third place playoff

Final

GoldSilverBronze Melbourne Ice Sydney Sirens Perth Inferno

References

External links Australian Women's Hockey League Ice Hockey Australia