2018–19 AWIHL season

Sports season

2018–19 AWIHL season
League	Australian Women's Ice Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	27 October 2018 – 10 March 2019
Regular season
Premiers	Melbourne Ice
Season MVP	Sharna Godfrey (Sydney Sirens)
Top scorer	Christina Julien (37 points) (Melbourne Ice)
Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy
Champions	Melbourne Ice (7th title)
Runners-up	Sydney Sirens
AWIHL seasons
← 2017–18 2019–20 →

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.^[1]

**2018–19 AWIHL teams**
Team	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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[3]

October

October
Game #	Date	Time	Away	Score	Home	Location	Recap
1	27 October 2018	17:00	Brisbane Goannas	1–12	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Group Arena	[1]
2	28 October 2018	13:15	Brisbane Goannas	0–7	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Group Arena	[2]

November

November
Game #	Date	Time	Away	Score	Home	Location	Recap
3	3 November 2018	17:00	Melbourne Ice	4–3	Sydney Sirens	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	[3]
4	4 November 2018	09:15	Melbourne Ice	3–1	Sydney Sirens	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	[4]
5	10 November 2018	16:00	Perth Inferno	11–4	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[5]
6	11 November 2018	09:30	Perth Inferno	6–0	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[6]
7	24 November 2018	16:00	Brisbane Goannas	3–5	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[7]
8	24 November 2018	18:00	Sydney Sirens	9–2	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[8]
9	25 November 2018	07:00	Sydney Sirens	8–1	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[9]
10	25 November 2018	09:30	Brisbane Goannas	1–2	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	[10]

December

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

January

January
Game #	Date	Time	Away	Score	Home	Location	Recap
17	12 January 2019	16:00	Adelaide Rush	0–3	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld	[17]
18	13 January 2019	07:00	Adelaide Rush	5–6	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld	[18]
19	19 January 2019	18:00	Melbourne Ice	4–8	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[19]
20	20 January 2019	09:30	Melbourne Ice	7–2	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	[20]

February

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

Key:

Winner

Draw

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Melbourne Ice (C)	12	10	0	1	1	77	35	+42	31	2019 Joan McKowen Finals
2	Sydney Sirens	12	7	2	0	3	73	26	+47	25
3	Perth Inferno	12	7	0	0	5	62	56	+6	21
4	Brisbane Goannas	12	2	0	1	9	24	67	−43	7
5	Adelaide Rush	12	2	0	0	10	28	80	−52	6

Source: AWIHL Elite Prospects
Rules for classification:
Tie-break: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
Points: 3 points for regulation win; 2 points for OT or SO win; 1 point for OT or SO loss or tie/draw; 0 points for regulation loss
(C) Champion

Player stats

The season's league leader statistics for skaters and goaltenders.^[4]^[5]

Goals
No.	Name	Pos	G
1	Christina Julien	Forward	24
2	Sharna Godfrey	Forward	16
3	Bettina Meyers	Forward	11
4	Ashlie Aparicio	Forward	10
5	Courtney Moulton	Forward	8

Assists
No.	Name	Pos	A
1	Elizabeth Scala	Forward	20
2	Sharna Godfrey	Forward	18
3	Bettina Meyers	Forward	15
4	Christina Julien	Forward	13
5	Michelle Clark-Crumpton	Forward	13

Points
No.	Name	Pos	P
1	Christina Julien	Forward	37
2	Sharna Godfrey	Forward	34
3	Elizabeth Scala	Forward	32
4	Michelle Clark-Crumpton	Forward	29
5	Bettina Meyers	Forward	26

Penalty minutes
No.	Name	Pos	PIM
1	Kirsty Venus	Defender	30
2	Isla Malcolm	Defender	22
3	Christina Julien	Forward	18
4	Bettina Meyers	Forward	18
5	Courtney Moulton	Forward	18

Save percentage
No.	Name	Pos	SV%
1	Sera Dogramaci	Goaltender	0.913
2	Ruth Brophy	Goaltender	0.904
3	Paula Morris	Goaltender	0.900
4	Olivia Last	Goaltender	0.900
5	Ella Licari	Goaltender	0.892

Goals against average
No.	Name	Pos	GAA
1	Paula Morris	Goaltender	1.33
2	Sera Dogramaci	Goaltender	2.20
3	Jenelle Carson	Goaltender	2.71
4	Olivia Last	Goaltender	2.84
5	Ruth Brophy	Goaltender	3.00

Season awards

Below lists the 2018–19 AWIHL regular season award winners.^[6]

Award	Name	Team
Skaters Network Most Valuable Player	Sharna Godfrey	Sydney Sirens
Best Forward	Christina Julien	Melbourne Ice
Best Defence	Amelia Matheson	Sydney Sirens
Best Goaltender	Sera Dogramaci	Sydney Sirens
Nellie 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.^[7] The prize for being crowned AWIHL Champions for winning the grand final is the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy.^[8]

In 2018–19, the Inferno, Sirens, Goannas and Ice qualified for the finals weekend.^[9] The event was held on 9 March to 10 March 2019 in host city Adelaide at the IceArenA.^[10] 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.^[11]

Semi-finals		Joan McKowen Final

9 March - Adelaide

Perth Inferno	3
		10 March - Adelaide
Sydney Sirens	6
		Sydney Sirens	3
9 March - Adelaide
		Melbourne Ice	4
Brisbane Goannas	2

Melbourne Ice	9
		Third place

		10 March - Adelaide

		Brisbane Goannas	3

		Perth Inferno	6

Semi-finals

9 March 2019
10:00

Perth Inferno

3–6
(1–2, 1–1, 1–3)

Sydney Sirens

IceArenA

Game reference

Keesha Atkins

Goalies

Sera Dogramaci

Referee:
Gabby Aston
Linesmen:
Mitch Brown
Sam Ellis

	0 – 1	McOnie (Unassisted)
	0 – 2	McOnie (Cochrane)
(Sharp) Scala	1 – 2
	1 – 3	Beaver (Chia, Embrey)
(C.Poole) M.Poole	2 – 3
	2 – 4	McOnie (Unassisted)
	2 – 5	Walker (Unassisted)
(Unassisted) Scala	3 – 5
	3 – 6	Godfrey (Matheson)

12 min

Penalties

8 min

Shots

9 March 2019
16:00

Brisbane Goannas

2–9
(0–2, 2–5, 0–2)

Melbourne Ice

IceArenA
Attendance: 150

Game reference

Tina Girdler

Goalies

Ruth Brophy

Referee:
Dave Gal
Linesmen:
Ian Hunter
Josef Rezek

	0 – 1	Aparicio (Meyers)
	0 – 2	Aparicio (Meyers)
	0 – 3	Lo (Pullin)
	0 – 4	Julien (Unassisted)
	0 – 5	Pullin (Moore)
	0 – 6	van der Wolf (Diduszko)
(Hocutt) Roberts	1 – 6
(MacDonald) Roberts	2 – 6
	2 – 7	Julien (van der Wolf)
	2 – 8	Julien (Ellis)
	2 – 9	Carson (Ellis, Jones)

6 min

Penalties

12 min

Shots

Third place playoff

10 March 2019
13:30

Brisbane Goannas

3–6
(0–2, 1–2, 2–2)

Perth Inferno

IceArenA

Game reference

Taylah Pearson

Goalies

Ella Licari

Referee:
Dave Gal
Linesmen:
Ian Hunter
Sam Ellis

	0 – 1	Cookson (Malcolm)
	0 – 2	Nottle (Minney-Smith)
	0 – 3	Clark-Crumpton (Moulton)
(Carbone) Roberts	1 – 3
	1 – 4	Clark-Crumpton (Moulton, Sharp)
	1 – 5	Clark-Crumpton (Moulton)
(Wytrykusz, Roberts) Carbone	2 – 5
(Haley) Brown	3 – 5
	3 – 6	McMahon (Clark-Crumpton)

6 min

Penalties

24 min

Shots

Final

10 March 2019
18:00

Sydney Sirens

3–4
(1–2, 2–0, 0–2)

Melbourne Ice

IceArenA

Game reference

Sera Dogramaci

Goalies

Jenelle Carson

Referee:
Gabby Aston
Linesmen:
Josef Rezek
Mitch Brown

	0 – 1	Ellis (Meyers, Julien)
	0 – 2	Julien (Unassisted)
(Unassisted) Godfrey	1 – 2
(Unassisted) McOnie	2 – 2
(Matheson) Beaver	3 – 2
	3 – 3	Scheuerlein (Aparicio)
	3 – 4	Meyers (Unassisted)

16 min

Penalties

24 min

Shots

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Melbourne Ice	Sydney Sirens	Perth Inferno

References

^ "AWIHL (W) - 2018-2019". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
^ Montroy, Liz (9 August 2018). "Perth Inferno Becomes the AWIHL's First Expansion Team". womenshockeylife.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
^ ^a ^b Collins, Lee (31 August 2018). "2018-19 AWIHL season schedule". icehockeynewsaustralia.com. Archived from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
^ "Scoring Leaders". Australian Women's Ice Hockey League. Archived from the original on 16 October 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
^ "Goalie Leaders". Australian Women's Ice Hockey League. Archived from the original on 16 October 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
^ Collins, Lee (13 March 2019). "2018-19 AWIHL awards". icehockeynewsaustralia.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
^ "Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL) Regulations" (PDF). Ice Hockey Australia. 1 January 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
^ "Joan Mckowen Memorial Cup". Ice Hockey Australia. Archived from the original on 15 August 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
^ Collins, Lee (22 February 2019). "2018-19 AWIHL season: Round 12". icehockeynewsaustralia.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
^ Collins, Lee (9 March 2019). "2019 AWIHL playoffs". icehockeynewsaustralia.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
^ "Melbourne win record-breaking seventh AWIHL title". Ice Hockey Australia. Archived from the original on 18 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

External links

Australian Women's Hockey League Archived 4 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine
Ice Hockey Australia

Australian Women's Ice Hockey League

Founded in 2005
Country: Australia (top tier)
Website: awihl.org.au

Showcase Series

2006
2006–07

Seasons

2007–08
2008–09
2009–10
2010–11
2011–12
2012–13
2013–14
2014–15
2015–16
2016–17
2017–18
2018–19
2019–20
2022–23
2023–24

Teams

Exhibition teams

Melbourne Ducks

Awards

Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy
Stephanie Boxall Trophy
West Lakes Trophy

Venues

Current: Boondall Iceworld; Cockburn Ice Arena; IceArenA; iceHQ; Macquarie Ice Rink; O'Brien Icehouse
Former: Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink; Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink; Olympic Ice Skating Centre; Penrith Ice Palace

Notable Figures and Organizations

Category
Commons

Ice hockey in Australia

National teams

National leagues

Governing bodies

Awards and trophies

Current	Goodall Cup H Newman Reid Trophy Wilson Cup Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy Stephanie Boxall Trophy Jim Brown Shield
Former	F.C. Brown Memorial Shield V.I.P. Cup West Lakes Trophy

Ice skating venues

Current	The Big Banana Fun Park Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink Cockburn Ice Arena Erina Ice Arena Hunter Ice Skating Stadium IceArenA iceHQ Ice World Boondall Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink Macquarie Ice Rink O'Brien Icehouse Perth Ice Arena Phillip Ice Skating Centre
Former	Adelaide Glaciarium Glenorchy Ice Skating Rink Melbourne Glaciarium Penrith Ice Palace St. Moritz Ice Rink Sydney Glaciarium Sydney Ice Arena