Australian Women's Ice Hockey League

Australian Women's Ice Hockey League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2015 AWIHL season
Sport Ice hockey
Founded 2005
Inaugural season 2007
No. of teams 4
Country Australia
Most recent champion(s) Melbourne Ice
Official website AWIHL.com.au

The Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL) is an amateur women's ice hockey league in Australia. This league represents the highest level national competition for women's hockey and is currently represented in four states: South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season.

History

Beginning

The official formation of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL) was in 2007, after two seasons of "Showcase Series" that were held in the 2005–2006 season and the 2006–2007 season. The Showcase Series was an initiative of the National Women’s Program to offer elite-level female competition that coincided with the regular season of the leagues in the Northern Hemisphere. This was in hope of the Australian National Team proceeding to the IIHF World Championships while in their peak playing condition. The Australian Women's Ice Hockey League is recognised by Ice Hockey Australia (IHA) as the premier senior women’s national ice hockey competition.[1] The league was formerly known as the Women's Ice Hockey Association until this point and began its inaugural season with four teams: Adelaide Assasins, Brisbane Goannas, Melbourne Dragons, and Sydney Sirens. The team that won the finals series at the end of each season became the AWIHL champions and were presented a perpetual trophy that was donated by Westlakes Trophies and Framing and was called the West Lakes Trophy.[2]

Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy

From the 2010–2011 season onwards the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy has been presented to the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League finals championship team and has been used since.

Logo change

The original AWIHL logo used from 2006 to 2010

In October 2010, the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League conducted a competition to replace the original league logo with a new one. The competition closed December 1, 2010, and the original logo was replaced by the current one.[3]

Teams

There are currently 4 teams in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League:

It is anticipated that the league will grow to five or six teams in the future. It has been speculated that New Zealand may join the league in the upcoming years.[4][5]

Adelaide Adrenaline

Starting their time in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League as the Adelaide Assasins, the team began by winning the finals championship for the first 5 years in a row. The Assassins were renamed the Adelaide Adrenaline when they became part of the existing club that had a men's team in the national competition, the Australian Ice Hockey League in the 2011–2012 season.

Brisbane Goannas

Queensland is represented by the Brisbane Goannas in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League.

Melbourne Ice

Victoria was originally represented by the Melbourne Dragons in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League up until 2010 when they were renamed the Melbourne Ice, sharing their name with one of Melbourne's national men's teams in the Australian Ice Hockey League. From 2010, the Melbourne Ice home stadium is the Medibank Icehouse.

Sydney Sirens

The Sydney Sirens were one of the four founding teams in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League and represent New South Wales. From 2011 to 2013 the Sydney Sirens were known as the North Star Sirens but reverted to their original name which they presently use.

Season structure

The regular season in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League consists of 12 games played by each team and runs from October to March. In addition to the top players from across Australia, each team is allowed a maximum of three imports to play in any one game. Each game consists of three 17-minute stop-time periods as opposed to the standard three 20-minute periods.

Champions

References

  1. ↑ XSYTE. "Brisbane Goannas - League History". hockeysyte.com.
  2. ↑ "showcase series". pacific.net.au.
  3. ↑ "Ice Hockey Australia - AWIHL LOGO COMPETITION - Pointstreak Sites". pointstreaksites.com.
  4. ↑ Australian Women's Ice Hockey League
  5. ↑ http://www.goannasicehockey.com/league
  6. ↑ "Ice Hockey Australia - Adelaide Assasins AWIHL 2010 League Champions - Pointstreak Sites". pointstreaksites.com.
  7. ↑ Zone Hockey. "FINALS: Late Adrenaline flurry secures Joan McKowen Trophy - AWIHL FINALS: Late Adrenaline flurry secures Joan McKowen Trophy - Australian Women's Ice Hockey League". awihl.com.au.
  8. ↑ "Melbourne Ice Women AWIHL Champions". Melbourne Ice.

External links