The 2023 NZWIHL season is the ninth season of the New Zealand Women's Ice Hockey League (NZWIHL). It ran from 12 August 2022 until 25 September 2022. Four teams competed in 12 regular season games followed by 4 playoff games, making up the NZWIHL Finals weekend. The Wakatipu Wild claimed the double by winning both the premiership title for finishing top of the regular season standings and the championship title by winning the grand final. Canterbury Inferno finished runner-up to both titles and the Dunedin Thunder claimed the wooden spoon.
Teams
In 2022 the NZWIHL had four teams, consisting of one from the North Island and three from the South Island.
2022 NZWIHL teamsTeamCityArenaHead coachCaptain Auckland Steel Auckland Paradice Avondale Jeff Boehme Helen Murray Canterbury Inferno Christchurch Alpine Ice Centre Matthew Sandford Bridie Gibbings Dunedin Thunder Dunedin Dunedin Ice Stadium Barrett Wilson Abbey Heale Wakatipu Wild Queenstown Queenstown Ice Arena Colin McIntosh Kellye Nelson
League Business
The league was on the agenda at the New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation (NZIHF) annual general meeting (AGM) in February and November 2022. The NZIHF confirmed they had underwritten team travel expenses in 2022 in order to ensure the 2022 season could be played, given the disruption and early end to the 2021 season. The league had been focusing on improving social media delivery for 2022. The updated league events manual was released in July 2022, ahead of the season commencing.
Regular season Running between 12 August 2022 until 18 September 2022, the NZWIHL regular season consisted of 12 games in total, with each team playing six games.
Fixtures & results
2022 regular seasonGame #DateTimeHomeScoreAwayLocationRecap 1 12 August 2022 18:45 Wakatipu Wild 5–0 Canterbury Inferno Queenstown Ice Arena 2 13 August 2022 15:30 Dunedin Thunder 5–7 Auckland Steel Dunedin Ice Stadium 3 13 August 2022 18:45 Wakatipu Wild 1–2 (OT) Canterbury Inferno Queenstown Ice Arena 4 14 August 2022 10:00 Dunedin Thunder 4–7 Auckland Steel Dunedin Ice Stadium 5 3 September 2022 16:30 Canterbury Inferno 4–0 Dunedin Thunder Alpine Ice Centre 6 3 September 2022 16:30 Auckland Steel 0–3 Wakatipu Wild Paradice Avondale 7 4 September 2022 16:30 Canterbury Inferno 2–0 Dunedin Thunder Alpine Ice Centre 8 4 September 2022 16:30 Auckland Steel 3–6 Wakatipu Wild Paradice Avondale 9 16 September 2022 18:45 Wakatipu Wild 15–1 Dunedin Thunder Queenstown Ice Arena 10 17 September 2022 16:30 Canterbury Inferno 7–5 Auckland Steel Alpine Ice Centre 11 17 September 2022 18:45 Wakatipu Wild 3–1 Dunedin Thunder Queenstown Ice Arena 12 18 September 2022 16:30 Canterbury Inferno 1–5 Auckland Steel Alpine Ice Centre Key: Winner Draw
Standings
Player stats The season's league leader statistics for skaters and goaltenders.
PointsNo. Name 1 Kellye Nelson Fwd 192 Jasmine Horner-Pascoe Fwd 183 Lova Holmqvist Fwd 164 Anjali Mulari Fwd 115 Gina Davis Fwd 9Penalty minutesNo. Name 1 Jamieson Taute Def 162 Emma Ahvennie Fwd 143 Rosie Harris Fwd 124 Bridie Gibbings Fwd 125 Gabrielle Mills Fwd 12Save percentageNo. Name 1 Sierra Morgulis Gk .9382 Jordan Wichman Gk .9163 Lochlyn Hyde Gk .8884 Justine Berry Gk .8875 Maddy Fox Gk .864
Season awards
Below lists the 2022 NZWIHL season award winners.
Award Name TeamMost Valuable Player Lova Holmqvist Wakatipu WildU18 Most Valuable Player Caitlin Hollyer Wakatipu WildBest Forward Jasmine Horner-Pascoe Auckland SteelBest Defence Jaime Jones Auckland SteelBest Goaltender Sierra Morgulis Canterbury InfernoSports Person of the Year Abbey Heale Dunedin Thunder
NZWIHL playoffs The top four teams in the NZWIHL regular season qualify for the NZWIHL playoffs. The playoffs is held on a single weekend and uses New Zealand conventions of being called Finals. The playoff system used by the NZWIHL 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. Th winner of the grand final is awarded a trophy and the top three teams are awarded gold, silver and bronze medals at the conclusion of the grand final. The NZWIHL also uses this time to announce team and league season awards.
In 2022, all four teams in the league qualified for the finals weekend. The event was held on the weekend of 24 and 25 September 2022 in host city Dunedin at Dunedin Ice Stadium. On day one, first placed Wakatipu Wild played fourth placed Dunedin Thunder in the first semi-final game and won comfortably. Second placed Canterbury Inferno ensured the top two seeds progressed to the grand final with a five goals to two victory over the Auckland Steel in semi-final two. On Day two of the Finals weekend, Auckland played hosts Dunedin for the bronze medal. Both teams made a number of changes including goaltenders and it was the Steel who defeated the Thunder and claimed bronze. In the grand final, the Wild successfully shutout the Inferno to claim their first ever NZWIHL championship title in their second full season since their formation in 2020.
Semi-finals
Third place playoff
Final
GoldSilverBronze Wakatipu Wild Canterbury Inferno Auckland Steel
References
External links New Zealand Women's Hockey League New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation Elite Prospects league profile