The 2023–24 AWIHL season is the 15th season of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). It ran from 28 October 2023 until 10 March 2024. Five teams competed in 40 regular season games followed by 4 playoff games, making up the AWIHL Finals weekend. The Perth Inferno claimed the Gower Memorial Shield premiership title, their maiden title, for finishing top of the regular season standings. The Melbourne Ice claimed their eighth Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy championship title by winning the grand final. Perth Inferno collected silver with Adelaide Rush claimed bronze. Defending champions, the Sydney Sirens, claimed the wooden spoon.
Teams
In 2023–24 the AWIHL had five teams from five Australian state capital cities competing, stretching east to west of the continent.
2023–24 AWIHL teamsTeam City Arena Head Coach Captain Adelaide Rush Adelaide IceArenA Joey MacDougall Natasha Farrier Brisbane Lightning Brisbane Boondall Iceworld Matthew Meyer Christina Badgley Melbourne Ice Melbourne O'Brien Icehouse Curtis Klooster Georgia Moore Perth Inferno Perth Cockburn Ice Arena Graham Hyde Chrystina Acker Sydney Sirens Sydney Macquarie Ice Rink Gabriel Robledo Sarah EdneyExhibition teams Melbourne Ducks Melbourne IceHQ Jeremy Muir Lucy Parrington
League Business
Ahead of the 2023–24 season, IceHQ's Melbourne Ducks announced their bid to join the AWIHL. The official AWIHL gameday schedule was released in early September 2023. The season structure was amended from 2022 to 2023, with each team now playing eight home and eight away games for a total of sixteen games over the regular season. An increase from the previous six home and away games. The trophy for the Premiership, winners of the regular season, was also amended in 2023. The Gower Memorial Shield replaced the previous Premiers trophy, the Stephanie Boxall Trophy. In late September, the AWIHL broadcast partner, Clutch.TV, went into administration and ceased all operations. The league was left little time to look for a new broadcaster for season 2023–24. On 24 October, the AWIHL announced a deal with Sportscast Australia to become the league's new broadcast partner for season 2023–24. A few days later the AWIHL and Sportscast Australia launched AWIHL.TV to deliver region-unlocked live and on-demand streaming of all regular season and finals games on a custom built website and YouTube. In January 2024, the AWIHL announced player equipment rule changes and a new equipment supplier agreement with Skaters Network. Neck laceration protective equipment was made mandatory, bringing the league into policy alignment with Ice Hockey Australia (IHA) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The deal with Skaters network, also covers sponsorship of player of the month and end of season player awards.
Exhibition games
To support the Melbourne Ducks application to join the league, the AWIHL approved the team to setup an exhibition series against existing AWIHL teams, including the Sydney Sirens, Melbourne Ice and Adelaide Rush, during season 2023–24. The Sydney Sirens also arranged a pre-season exhibition against a select team from their sponsor Wayward Brewing Company
2023-24 AWIHL exhibition gamesDateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 14 October 2023 16:30 Wayward Sons 1–3 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink Ref 20 October 2023 19:00 Melbourne Ice 15–0 Melbourne Ducks iceHQ Ref 21 October 2023 18:30 Melbourne Ice 14–0 Melbourne Ducks iceHQ Ref 9 December 2023 19:30 Sydney Sirens 14–4 Melbourne Ducks iceHQ Ref 10 December 2023 16:00 Sydney Sirens 1–2 Melbourne Ducks iceHQ Ref 3 February 2024 19:30 Adelaide Rush 12–1 Melbourne Ducks iceHQ Ref 4 February 2024 15:00 Adelaide Rush 9–1 Melbourne Ducks iceHQ Ref
Regular season
Fixtures & results Running between 28 October 2023 and 25 February 2024, the AWIHL regular season consisted of 40 games in total, with teams playing 16 games each. Game 34 of the regular season was first postponed and then cancelled by the AWIHL following a carbon monoxide poisoning incident at Adelaide's IceArenA. At least 42 people, including players from both AWIHL teams, were treated for poisoning with dozens hospitalised by the incident. The LPG gas-powered Zamboni was identified as the source of the leak that led to the poisoning. The game was declared a tie with each team awarded one point each.
October OctoberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 1 28 October 2023 16:30 Melbourne Ice 6–5 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 2 28 October 2023 17:00 Adelaide Rush 6–5 (OT) Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 3 29 October 2023 08:15 Melbourne Ice 6–3 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 4 29 October 2023 15:30 Adelaide Rush 2–6 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld
November NovemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 5 4 November 2023 16:00 Perth Inferno 5–4 Melbourne Ice iceHQ 6 5 November 2023 14:30 Perth Inferno 1–6 Melbourne Ice iceHQ 7 11 November 2023 13:45 Sydney Sirens 4–5 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 8 11 November 2023 20:00 Melbourne Ice 9–5 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 9 12 November 2023 10:00 Sydney Sirens 4–6 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 10 12 November 2023 15:30 Melbourne Ice 5–7 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld
December DecemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 11 2 December 2023 16:30 Adelaide Rush 3–2 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 12 2 December 2023 17:00 Perth Inferno 9–0 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 13 3 December 2023 08:15 Adelaide Rush 7–1 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 14 3 December 2023 15:30 Perth Inferno 4–3 (OT) Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 15 9 December 2023 16:30 Brisbane Lightning 0–1 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 16 10 December 2023 10:30 Brisbane Lightning 7–4 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 17 16 December 2023 16:00 Perth Inferno 7–4 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 18 16 December 2023 16:45 Sydney Sirens 6–8 Melbourne Ice Macquarie Ice Rink 19 17 December 2023 10:00 Perth Inferno 9–8 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 20 17 December 2023 13:45 Sydney Sirens 2–7 Melbourne Ice Macquarie Ice Rink
January JanuaryGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 21 13 January 2024 16:30 Melbourne Ice 4–5 (SO) Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 22 14 January 2024 10:30 Melbourne Ice 6–3 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 23 20 January 2024 16:00 Brisbane Lightning 5–8 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 24 21 January 2024 10:00 Brisbane Lightning 2–6 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 25 27 January 2024 16:30 Sydney Sirens 5–7 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 26 27 January 2024 16:45 Adelaide Rush 2–3 Melbourne Ice O’Brien Icehouse 27 28 January 2024 10:30 Sydney Sirens 5–4 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 28 28 January 2024 13:45 Adelaide Rush 5–2 Melbourne Ice O’Brien Icehouse
February FebruaryGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 29 3 February 2024 17:00 Sydney Sirens 1–5 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 30 4 February 2024 15:30 Sydney Sirens 2–7 Brisbane Lightning Boondall Iceworld 31 10 February 2024 16:00 Melbourne Ice 2–6 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 32 10 February 2024 16:30 Brisbane Lightning 3–4 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 33 11 February 2024 08:15 Brisbane Lightning 2–3 (SO) Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 34 11 February 2024 10:00 Melbourne Ice Cancelled Adelaide Rush IceArenA 35 17 February 2024 16:30 Perth Inferno 3–0 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 36 18 February 2024 08:15 Perth Inferno 2–4 Sydney Sirens Macquarie Ice Rink 37 24 February 2024 16:30 Adelaide Rush 3–5 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 38 24 February 2024 16:45 Brisbane Lightning 8–4 Melbourne Ice O’Brien Icehouse 39 25 February 2024 10:30 Adelaide Rush 2–3 Perth Inferno Cockburn Ice Arena 40 25 February 2024 13:45 Brisbane Lightning 5–3 Melbourne Ice O’Brien Icehouse
Key: Winner Draw
Standings
Player stats The season's league leader statistics for skaters and goaltenders.
GoalsNo. Name 1 Elizabeth Scala Forward 222 Sarah Edney Forward 223 Emma Wuthrich Forward 154 Sharna Godfrey Forward 145 Danielle Butler Forward 14AssistsNo. Name 1 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 272 Sara Sammons Forward 243 Ashlie Aparicio Forward 234 Sharna Godfrey Forward 175 Kaitlyn Malthaner Forward 15PointsNo. Name 1 Michelle Clark-Crumpton Forward 382 Sara Sammons Forward 333 Sharna Godfrey Forward 314 Ashlie Aparicio Forward 315 Elizabeth Scala Forward 29 Penalty minutesNo. Name 1 Maya Tupper Defender 412 Emma Wuthrich Forward 393 Samantha Brophy Defender 374 Molly Lukowiak Forward 265 Gabrielle Arps Defender 26Save percentageNo. Name 1 Sasha King Goaltender .9232 Madison Smith Goaltender .8883 Emma Moonen Goaltender .8754 Katie Meyer Goaltender .8685 Makayla Peers Goaltender .859Goals against averageNo. Name 1 Sasha King Goaltender 2.862 Katie Meyer Goaltender 3.233 Madison Smith Goaltender 3.404 Emma Moonen Goaltender 3.855 Amelia Knott Goaltender 4.60
Season awards
Below lists the 2023–24 AWIHL regular season league award winners.
Award Name TeamBest Forward Sarah Edney Sydney SirensBest Defence Maya Tupper Adelaide RushBest Goaltender Sasha King Perth InfernoNellie Gee Rookie of the Year Katie Meyer Brisbane Lightning
Below lists the 2023–24 AWIHL regular season Hockey Hype Australia award winners.
Award Name TeamAssist of the season Natalie Ayris Adelaide RushGoal of the season Sara Sammons Perth InfernoSave of the season Archie Smith Adelaide Rush
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 2023–24, the Inferno, Rush, Ice and Lightning qualified for the finals weekend. The event was held on the weekend of 9–10 March 2024 in host city Melbourne at O’Brien Icehouse. Perth and Melbourne won the semi-final games on Saturday to progress to the grand final on Sunday. The defeated teams, Adelaide and Brisbane, progressed to the bronze medal game on Sunday. In the third-place play-off, the Adelaide Rush defeated the Brisbane Lightning to clinch the bronze medal. In the grand final, the regular season Premiers were defeated in an upset to the Melbourne Ice. The surprise victory for the Ice saw them hoist the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy for a record setting eighth time. After the grand final, Danielle Butler, of the Melbourne Ice, was named AWIHL Finals MVP.
Semi-finals
Third place playoff
Final
GoldSilverBronze Melbourne Ice Perth Inferno Adelaide Rush
References
External links Australian Women's Hockey League Ice Hockey Australia