The 2017–18 AWIHL season is the 11th season of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). It ran from 28 October 2017 until 18 March 2018. Four teams competed in 24 regular season games followed by 4 playoff games, making up the AWIHL Finals weekend. The Sydney Sirens claimed the premiership title for finishing top of the regular season standings, while the Melbourne Ice claimed the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy championship title by winning the grand final. Melbourne finished runner-up in the season standings while Sydney lost the grand final. Adelaide Rush came last in the regular season and claimed the wooden spoon.
Teams
In 2017–18 the AWIHL had four teams from four Australian state capital cities competing, stretching across the east coast and southern Australian mainland. Perth Inferno was added as an exhibition team only for the 2017–18 season, as they looked to meet criteria set down by the AWIHL Commission to be granted a full licence for 2018–19.
2017–18 AWIHL teamsTeam City Arena Head Coach Captain Adelaide Rush Adelaide IceArenA Josef Rezek Ashley Pelkey Brisbane Goannas Brisbane Boondall Iceworld Terry Kiliwnik Veronica Watson Melbourne Ice Melbourne O'Brien Icehouse Marcus Wong Shona Powell Sydney Sirens Sydney Macquarie Ice Rink Troy Morgan Amelia MathesonExhibition teams Perth Inferno Perth Cockburn Ice Arena Paul Graham
League Business
The official AWIHL gameday schedule was released at the start of September 2017. The season structure remained unchanged from 2016 to 2017, each team competing in a four-game series against each other team, playing two games at home and two games away. Looking to become the first AWIHL expansion team, Perth Inferno, was admitted to the league on a provisional licence to play two exhibition games against the Sydney Sirens. The first of these two exhibition games, at Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink, was to be live streamed by Thought Fox Media Group with commentary by Eric Brookes. Ahead of the season, the AWIHL announced the continuation of their sponsorship agreement with Skaters Network in November 2017. The agreement would continue the company's status as preferred equipment supplier to the AWIHL and the naming rights holder for the player of the month award. Ice Hockey Australia also announced the establishment and go-live of the league's new website, hosted on the Ice Hockey Australia's website, it contains separate pages for each team, news, history and is linked to the eSportsdesk website that contains all information on games, players, scores and stats. Every AWIHL game of the 2017–18 season would be live streamed on the new website. In December 2017, AWIHL commissioner, Melissa Rulli, announced the league had secured an event assistance grant under the Victorian Government's Significant Sporting Events Program, to host the AWIHL Finals weekend in Melbourne at O'Brien Group Arena.
Regular season
Fixtures and results Running between 28 October 2017 and 4 March 2018, the AWIHL regular season consisted of 24 games in total, with teams playing 12 games each, 4 games (2 home and 2 away) against each opponent. There additionally was two exhibition games scheduled for Sydney in February 2018 between the Sydney Sirens and prospective expansion side Perth Inferno. The Sirens won both games comfortably against the exhibition Perth team, scoring sixteen goals and conceding five.
October OctoberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 1 28 October 2017 17:00 Adelaide Rush 2–6 Sydney Sirens Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink 2 28 October 2017 17:00 Brisbane Goannas 0–2 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Group Arena 3 29 October 2017 10:00 Adelaide Rush 4–9 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink 4 29 October 2017 13:15 Brisbane Goannas 1–6 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Group Arena
November NovemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 5 11 November 2017 16:30 Brisbane Goannas 3–2 (SO) Adelaide Rush IceArenA 6 12 November 2017 10:00 Brisbane Goannas 2–4 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 7 18 November 2017 17:00 Sydney Sirens 3–0 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Group Arena 8 19 November 2017 11:15 Sydney Sirens 4–2 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Group Arena
December DecemberGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 9 2 December 2017 16:30 Melbourne Ice 3–2 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 10 3 December 2017 10:00 Melbourne Ice 7–4 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 11 9 December 2017 17:00 Brisbane Goannas 1–2 Sydney Sirens Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink 12 10 December 2017 10:00 Brisbane Goannas 0–4 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink
January JanuaryGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 13 13 January 2018 16:00 Sydney Sirens 10–4 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 14 13 January 2018 17:00 Adelaide Rush 1–9 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Group Arena 15 14 January 2018 07:30 Sydney Sirens 4–0 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 16 14 January 2018 15:15 Adelaide Rush 1–8 Melbourne Ice O'Brien Group Arena
February FebruaryGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 17 3 February 2018 16:00 Adelaide Rush 2–1 (SO) Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 18 4 February 2018 07:30 Adelaide Rush 3–7 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 19 10 February 2018 17:00 Melbourne Ice 4–0 Sydney Sirens Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink 20 11 February 2018 10:00 Melbourne Ice 0–6 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink EX 17 February 2018 17:00 Perth Inferno 4–8 Sydney Sirens Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink EX 18 February 2018 10:00 Perth Inferno 1–8 Sydney Sirens Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink 21 24 February 2018 16:30 Sydney Sirens 2–4 Adelaide Rush IceArenA 22 25 February 2018 10:00 Sydney Sirens 7–0 Adelaide Rush IceArenA
March MarchGame #DateTimeAwayScoreHomeLocationRecap 23 3 March 2018 16:00 Melbourne Ice 0–1 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld 24 4 March 2018 07:30 Melbourne Ice 6–2 Brisbane Goannas Boondall Iceworld
Key: Winner Exhibition game
Standings
Player stats The season's league leader statistics for skaters and goaltenders.
GoalsNo. Name 1 Stephenie Cochrane Forward 152 Jessica Pinkerton Forward 143 Sharna Godfrey Forward 114 Christina Julien Forward 115 Natalie Ayris Forward 11AssistsNo. Name 1 Kristelle van der Wolf Forward 142 Jessica Pinkerton Forward 123 Amelia Matheson Defender 114 Sharna Godfrey Forward 105 Erin Beaver Defender 10PointsNo. Name 1 Jessica Pinkerton Forward 262 Sharna Godfrey Forward 213 Stephenie Cochrane Forward 194 Kristelle van der Wolf Forward 195 Natalie Ayris Forward 18 Penalty minutesNo. Name 1 Rylie Ellis Defender 332 Nicole Jones Forward 243 Tracy Hocutt Forward 244 Kirsty Venus Defender 225 Sharnita Crompton Forward 18Save percentageNo. Name 1 Imogen Perry Goaltender 0.9432 Ella Licari Goaltender 0.9363 Jenelle Carson Goaltender 0.9364 Ruth Brophy Goaltender 0.8955 Ashleigh Brown Goaltender 0.886Goals against averageNo. Name 1 Ella Licari Goaltender 1.132 Imogen Perry Goaltender 1.463 Jenelle Carson Goaltender 1.534 Ruth Brophy Goaltender 1.675 Paula Morris Goaltender 2.75
Season awards
Below lists the 2017–18 AWIHL regular season award winners.
Award Name TeamSkaters Network Most Valuable Player Stephanie Cochrane Sydney SirensBest Forward Ashley Pelkey Adelaide RushBest Defence Erin Beaver Sydney SirensBest Goaltender Keesha Aitkins Adelaide RushNellie Gee Rookie of the Year Marnie Pullin Melbourne Ice
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 2017–18, the Adelaide Rush, Sydney Sirens, Brisbane Goannas and Melbourne Ice qualified for the finals weekend. The event was held on 17 and 18 March 2018 in host city Melbourne at O’Brien Group Arena. On Saturday, Sydney won the first semi final in a high scoring affair against Adelaide. In the second semi-final, the Melbourne Ice made light work of Brisbane to advance to the grand final. On Sunday, first up, the Goannas won a close contest against the Rush to secure bronze medals for the Queenslanders. In the grand final, Melbourne Ice secured their record equaling sixth championship title and lifted the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy, after defeating the Sydney Sirens 4–2, with Jessica Pinkerton scoring all four goals for the winners.
Semi-finals
Third place playoff
Final
GoldSilverBronze Melbourne Ice Sydney Sirens Brisbane Goannas
References
External links Australian Women's Hockey League Ice Hockey Australia