2019–20 AWIHL season

The 2019–20 AWIHL season is the thirteenth season of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). It ran from 26 October 2019 until 2 February 2020. Five teams competed in 30 regular season games followed by 4 playoff games, making up the AWIHL Finals weekend. The Sydney Sirens 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. Adelaide Rush finished runner-up to both titles and the Brisbane Goannas claimed the wooden spoon. 
==Teams==
In 2019–20 the AWIHL had five teams from five Australian state capital cities competing, stretching east to west of the continent.
Team 	City 	Arena 	Head Coach 	Captain
Adelaide Rush 	Adelaide 	IceArenA 	Hayden Crafter 	Kirsty Venus
Brisbane Goannas	Brisbane 	Boondall Iceworld 	Darryl Dunsford	Jess Wytrykusz
Melbourne Ice 	Melbourne	O'Brien Icehouse 	Marcus Wong 	Christina Julien
Perth Inferno 	Perth 	Cockburn Ice Arena 	Paul Graham 	Courtney Moulton
Sydney Sirens 	Sydney 	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	Jayden Ryan 	Stephenie Cochrane
==League Business==
The official AWIHL gameday schedule was released at the end of September 2019. The season structure remained unchanged from 2018-19, with each team playing two of the four opponents in a four game series with the other two teams being played twice during the season. The AWIHL announced on 4 October a new travel partnership with SportsLink Travel, that would provide the five teams in the league a cost equalisation program for airfares and bus transfers. In November 2019, the league struck an agreement with Kayo Sports to stream a 'game of the week' and 20 minutes of highlights and player interviews for the 2019–20 season on Kayo's nationally available streaming service.
==Regular season==
===Fixtures & results===
Running between 26 October 2019 and 19 January 2020, the AWIHL regular season consisted of 30 games in total. On 17 January 2020, the AWIHL commission made the decision to treat the 12 January 2020 game between Melbourne Ice and Perth Inferno as a draw and award both teams 1 point each. Initially the Inferno were awarded 2 points for winning in overtime, however the game did not progress to a shootout and a 3v3 overtime period was played instead, against league regulations.
====October====
October	October 	October	October 	October	October 	October 	October
Game # 	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location	Recap
1 	26 October 2019	16:00 	Perth Inferno	4–7 	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	
2 	27 October 2019	09:30 	Perth Inferno	5–6 	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA	
====November====
November	November 	November	November 	November	November 	November 	November
Game # 	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Recap
3 	2 November 2019 	16:00 	Melbourne Ice 	3–1 	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld 	
4 	2 November 2019 	17:00 	Perth Inferno 	9–10 	Sydney Sirens 	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	
5 	3 November 2019 	09:30 	Perth Inferno 	3–7 	Sydney Sirens 	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	
6 	3 November 2019 	15:15 	Melbourne Ice 	1–3 	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld 	
7 	9 November 2019 	17:30 	Adelaide Rush 	7–5 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena 	
8 	10 November 2019	08:15 	Adelaide Rush 	4–3 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena 	
9 	16 November 2019	17:00 	Brisbane Goannas	1–12 	Sydney Sirens 	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	
10 	17 November 2019	09:30 	Brisbane Goannas	1–10 	Sydney Sirens 	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	
11 	23 November 2019	16:00 	Brisbane Goannas	1–7 	Adelaide Rush 	IceArenA 	
12 	23 November 2019	16:00 	Sydney Sirens 	3–2 	Melbourne Ice 	O'Brien Icehouse 	
13 	24 November 2019	09:30 	Brisbane Goannas	0–7 	Adelaide Rush 	IceArenA 	
14 	24 November 2019	13:15 	Sydney Sirens 	3–1 	Melbourne Ice 	O'Brien Icehouse 	
15 	30 November 2019	16:00 	Adelaide Rush 	2–0 	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld 	
====December====
December	December 	December	December 	December	December 	December 	December
Game # 	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Recap
16 	1 December 2019 	15:15 	Adelaide Rush	6–2 	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld 	
17 	7 December 2019 	16:00 	Perth Inferno	4–6 	Melbourne Ice 	O'Brien Icehouse 	
18 	7 December 2019 	16:00 	Sydney Sirens	3–4 (SO)	Adelaide Rush 	IceArenA 	
19 	8 December 2019 	09:30 	Sydney Sirens	6–5 (SO)	Adelaide Rush 	IceArenA 	
20 	8 December 2019 	13:15 	Perth Inferno	4–7 	Melbourne Ice 	O'Brien Icehouse 	
21 	14 December 2019	20:30 	Melbourne Ice	3–4 (SO)	Sydney Sirens 	Penrith Ice Palace 	
22 	15 December 2019	09:30 	Melbourne Ice	7–5 	Sydney Sirens 	Liverpool Catholic Club Ice Rink	
====January====
January	January 	January	January 	January	January 	January 	January
Game # 	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Recap
23 	11 January 2020	16:00 	Sydney Sirens 	5–1 	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld 	
24 	11 January 2020	18:00 	Melbourne Ice 	7–2 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena	
25 	12 January 2020	12:30 	Melbourne Ice 	 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena	
26 	12 January 2020	15:15 	Sydney Sirens 	7–4 	Brisbane Goannas	Boondall Iceworld 	
27 	18 January 2020	16:00 	Adelaide Rush 	2–4 	Melbourne Ice 	O'Brien Icehouse 	
28 	18 January 2020	18:00 	Brisbane Goannas	1–4 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena	
29 	19 January 2020	12:30 	Brisbane Goannas	1–9 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena	
30 	19 January 2020	13:15 	Adelaide Rush 	2–3 	Melbourne Ice 	O'Brien Icehouse 	
Key:
Winner	Draw
===Standings===
===Player stats===
The season's league leader statistics for skaters and goaltenders.
{| class="toccolours" style="width:25em"	 	 	
Goals	Goals 	Goals 	Goals
No. 	Name 	 	
1 	Kayla Nielsen 	Forward	17
2 	Nadine Edney 	Forward	17
3 	Natasha Farrier 	Forward	16
4 	Nora Maclaine 	Forward	13
5 	Christina Julien	Forward	12
{| class="toccolours" style="width:25em"	 	 	
Penalty minutes	Penalty minutes 	Penalty minutes	Penalty minutes
No. 	Name 	 	
1 	Tracy Hocutt 	Forward 	40
2 	Sarah Dash 	Defender 	37
3 	Nicole Jones 	Forward 	36
4 	Rylie Ellis 	Defender 	34
5 	Courtney Moulton	Forward 	30
===Season awards===
Below lists the 2019–20 AWIHL regular season award winners.
Award 	Name 	Team
Skaters Network Most Valuable Player	Natasha Farrier 	Adelaide Rush
Best Forward 	Kayla Nielsen 	Sydney Sirens
Best Defence 	Sarah Edney 	Sydney Sirens
Best Goaltender 	Michelle Coonan 	Adelaide Rush
Nellie Gee Rookie of the Year 	Courtney Mahoney	Brisbane Goannas
==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 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 2019–20, the Sirens, Rush, Ice and Inferno qualified for the finals weekend. In late January 2020, the AWIHL released an annual finals promo video to promote the event as well as naming the officials for the weekend. The event was held on 1 and 2 February 2020 in host city Melbourne at O’Brien Icehouse. Sydney and Adelaide won on Saturday to advance to the Joan McKowen Final, with Perth and Melbourne heading to the third place playoff. Melbourne Ice won playoff on Sunday to secure third place for the season, Perth finishing fourth. In the grand final, Sydney Sirens produced a strong display to shutout the Rush and secure the Championship title and the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy. It is the second championship title in Sirens history.
===Semi-finals===
===Third place playoff===
===Final===
Gold 	Silver 	Bronze
Sydney Sirens	Adelaide Rush	Melbourne Ice
==References==
== External links ==
*Australian Women's Hockey League 
*Ice Hockey Australia
Category:Australian Women's Ice Hockey League seasons
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