2022–23 AWIHL season

The 2022–23 AWIHL season is the 14th season of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). It runs from 5 November 2022 until 19 March 2023. Five teams compete in 30 regular season games followed by 4 playoff games, making up the AWIHL Finals weekend. The Sydney Sirens claimed the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy championship title by winning the grand final. The Melbourne Ice claimed the Stephanie Boxall Trophy premiership title for finishing top of the regular season standings. The Sirens finished runner-up in the regular season and the Adelaide Rush claimed the wooden spoon.
==Teams==
In 2022–23 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 	Joey MacDougall 	Natalie Ayris
Brisbane Lightning	Brisbane 	Boondall Iceworld 	Tom Harkness 	Kelly Costa
Melbourne Ice 	Melbourne	O'Brien Icehouse 	Rod Johns & Andrew Marshall	Sarah Dash
Perth Inferno 	Perth 	Cockburn Ice Arena	Graham Hyde 	Marina Nottle
Sydney Sirens 	Sydney 	Macquarie Ice Rink	Jayden Ryan 	Sarah Edney
==League Business==
The official AWIHL gameday schedule was released at the beginning of October 2022. The season structure remained unchanged from 2019-20, 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. Ahead of the new season, after a two year absence due to COVID-19 outbreaks and subsequent lockdown and travel restrictions, AWIHL Commissioner, Melissa Rulli, stepped down from her role. She held the position for almost five years, having secured the position in December 2017. The Brisbane Goannas announced they had signed and agreement with the Brisbane Lightning organisation to merge their organisations. The Goannas would re-brand themselves as the Lightning for the season ahead. At the end of October, the league and Cluch signed a broadcasting deal for every game of the season to be broadcast live and free on Cluch's streaming platform. The streams would be available worldwide, with no region locking. In January, Perth Inferno released a special one-off Cancer Awareness jersey that will be worn in a game on 4 February 2023 and then auctioned off post-game to support Cancer Council Western Australia.
Staffing changes for 2022-23 included Brisbane naming Tom Harkness as their new head coach, with Matt Meyer and Ben Stadtmiller to assist him. Adelaide appointed Joey MacDougall as their new head coach and the vastly experienced Jim Fuyarchuk as assistant coach. Melbourne Ice changed their coaching lineup for 2022-23. Rod Johns, Bryan Mackenzie and Andrew Marshall were appointed team coaches, replacing Marcus Wong, Mark Smith and Laurie Piggot.
==Regular season==
===Fixtures & results===
Running between 5 November 2022 and 5 March 2023, the AWIHL regular season consisted of 30 games in total, with teams playing 12 games each.
====November====
November	November 	November	November 	November	November 	November 	November
Game # 	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Recap
1 	5 November 2022 	16:30 	Brisbane Lightning	3–8 	Sydney Sirens 	Macquarie Ice Rink	
2 	6 November 2022 	08:15 	Brisbane Lightning	4–5 	Sydney Sirens 	Macquarie Ice Rink	
3 	12 November 2022	16:00 	Melbourne Ice 	7–2 	Adelaide Rush 	IceArenA 	
4 	12 November 2022	17:00 	Perth Inferno 	2–3 	Brisbane Lightning	Boondall Iceworld 	
5 	13 November 2022	10:00 	Melbourne Ice 	7–0 	Adelaide Rush 	IceArenA 	
6 	13 November 2022	16:30 	Perth Inferno 	4–2 	Brisbane Lightning	Boondall Iceworld 	
7 	19 November 2022	16:30 	Sydney Sirens 	9–6 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena	
8 	20 November 2022	10:00 	Sydney Sirens 	6–5 (OT)	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena	
9 	26 November 2022	16:30 	Adelaide Rush 	0–9 	Sydney Sirens 	Macquarie Ice Rink	
10 	27 November 2022	08:15 	Adelaide Rush 	1–3 	Sydney Sirens 	Macquarie Ice Rink	
====December====
December	December 	December	December 	December	December 	December 	December
Game # 	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Recap
11 	3 December 2022 	17:00 	Adelaide Rush 	1–4 	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Icehouse	
12 	4 December 2022 	13:30 	Adelaide Rush 	3–4 	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Icehouse	
13 	17 December 2022	17:00 	Brisbane Lightning	0–2 	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Icehouse	
14 	18 December 2022	13:30 	Brisbane Lightning	1–7 	Melbourne Ice	O'Brien Icehouse	
====January====
January	January 	January	January 	January 	January 	January 	January
Game # 	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Recap
15 	7 January 2002 	16:00 	Perth Inferno	3–5 	Adelaide Rush 	IceArenA 	
16 	7 January 2002 	17:00 	Sydney Sirens	3–7 	Brisbane Lightning	Boondall Iceworld	
17 	8 January 2002 	07:00 	Sydney Sirens	4–3 (OT)	Brisbane Lightning	Boondall Iceworld	
18 	8 January 2002 	10:00 	Perth Inferno	10–7 	Adelaide Rush 	IceArenA 	
19 	14 January 2002	17:00 	Sydney Sirens	2–3 	Melbourne Ice 	O'Brien Icehouse 	
20 	15 January 2002	13:30 	Sydney Sirens	4–3 (OT)	Melbourne Ice 	O'Brien Icehouse 	
====February====
February	February 	February	February 	February	February 	February 	February
Game # 	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Recap
21 	4 February 2022 	16:30 	Adelaide Rush	1–4 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena	
22 	5 February 2022 	10:00 	Adelaide Rush	5–3 	Perth Inferno 	Cockburn Ice Arena	
23 	11 February 2022	16:30 	Perth Inferno	0–6 	Sydney Sirens 	Macquarie Ice Rink	
24 	11 February 2022	17:00 	Melbourne Ice	1–2 	Brisbane Lightning	Boondall Iceworld 	
25 	12 February 2022	07:00 	Melbourne Ice	4–3 (SO)	Brisbane Lightning	Boondall Iceworld 	
26 	12 February 2022	08:15 	Perth Inferno	5–7 	Sydney Sirens 	Macquarie Ice Rink	
====March====
March 	March 	March	March 	March	March 	March 	March
Game #	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score	Home 	Location 	Recap
27 	4 March 2022	16:00	Brisbane Lightning	5–4 	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA 	
28 	4 March 2022	16:30	Melbourne Ice 	1–3 	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	
29 	5 March 2022	10:00	Brisbane Lightning	6–2 	Adelaide Rush	IceArenA 	
30 	5 March 2022	10:00	Melbourne Ice 	4–3 	Perth Inferno	Cockburn Ice Arena	
Key:
Winner	Draw
===Standings===
===Player stats===
The season's league leader statistics for skaters and goaltenders.
{| class="toccolours" style="width:23em"	 	 	
Goals	Goals 	Goals 	Goals
No. 	Name 	 	
1 	Elizabeth Scala 	Forward	15
2 	Danielle Butler 	Forward	15
3 	Sarah Edney 	Forward	13
4 	Michelle Clark-Crumpton	Forward	12
5 	Linda Bjorling 	Forward	10
{| class="toccolours" style="width:23em"	 	 	
Penalty minutes	Penalty minutes 	Penalty minutes	Penalty minutes
No. 	Name 	 	
1 	Sharna Godfrey 	Forward 	39
2 	Chrystina Acker 	Forward 	34
3 	Kristelle Van Der Wolf	Forward 	33
4 	Katrina Rapchuk 	Forward 	31
5 	Sharnita Crompton 	Forward 	26
===Season awards===
Below lists the 2022–23 AWIHL regular season award winners.
Award 	Name 	Team
Best Forward 	Danielle Butler	Melbourne Ice
Best Defence 	Sarah Edney 	Sydney Sirens
Best Goaltender 	Makayla Peers 	Melbourne Ice
Nellie Gee Rookie of the Year	Katrina Rapchuk	Brisbane Lightning
==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 2022–23, the Ice, Sirens, Lightning and Inferno qualified for the finals weekend. The event was held on 18-19 in host city Melbourne at O’Brien Icehouse. 
===Semi-finals===
===Third place playoff===
===Final===
Gold 	Silver 	Bronze
Sydney Sirens	Melbourne Ice	Perth Inferno
==References==
== External links ==
*Australian Women's Hockey League
*Ice Hockey Australia
Category:Australian Women's Ice Hockey League seasons
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