Week five saw the return of two series for the weekend in the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). Sydney Sirens hosted Brisbane Lightning at Macquarie Ice Rink. At the IceArena in Adelaide, Adelaide Rush hosted Melbourne Ice. Once again, Perth Inferno had the weekend off but they will return in week six.
We’re Going On An Adventure, Charlieeeeeee!
Every road trip in the AWIHL requires the away team to board a plane and fly interstate. If you want an experience in logistics and people management, try organising and taking a team and staff from a hockey team on an interstate road trip in Australia.
It’s not easy to shepherd 20 people plus all the required equipment to the airport, often flying out on a Saturday morning and playing Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning before repeating the process to fly home. If all of that is not enough, some of the players are also legally children, as players aged 14 – 17 are AWIHL eligible, which may add to the complications. Additionally, weekends are often busier than weekdays as people look to get some travel in over their weekend.
There’s been several examples of things not going to plan on the road in the AWIHL and the male equivalent, the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). Brisbane Lightning were the latest team who needed to adjust to all things air travel on Saturday morning. Due to delays that saw some flights cancelled and others running up to four hours late, Brisbane’s flight was delayed by a couple of hours. This led to the team being later to the rink than they planned which can be a distraction for any team’s or any player’s routine.
One adjustment that needed to be made was for the players to get dressed for the game. Players dress very differently for travel compared to what they wear before putting on their skates and all of their protective equipment. Instead of starting the process at the rink, the bus on the way to the game needed to suffice. Having spent two years on the road with the Sydney Bears in the AIHL as the social media manager and not missing a game in that period, I certainly have some stories about being on the road with a hockey team!
On the most recent episode of the Weekly Wraparound, Gordon Goodenough and I asked Lightning head coach Matt Meyer about the potential effect on the team because of the flight delays. Matt shared that the team were having a great time at Brisbane airport waiting for the plane. Meanwhile, the staff were understandably more concerned with the delays and the logistics involved. He remarked that the team seemed to prefer going straight from the airport to the rink without waiting at the accommodation for game time for the 4:45 pm start local time. This weekend’s series against the Inferno in Perth will see a different strategy, with the team arriving on Friday to avoid a long flight and playing not long after arrival.
A New Addition To The Scenery At Macquarie
Thanks to hockey mega fan Sheepie for sharing the news of Macquarie’s latest improvements. After the ice reconstruction, including redoing the markings and adding logos in time for the Sirens/Ice series, a collection of banners for the major hockey tenants at Macquarie was added and attached to the window frames at the southern end.
While the banners for the AIHL’s Sydney Bears and Sydney Ice Dogs teams had been relocated from an eastern wall, two new banners were added for the Sirens. At this stage, only their first championship banner has been installed with 2 more championships yet to be celebrated in this manner.
If you have heard my hockey commentary before, you will know that I like to name my ends of the rink (in Macquarie’s case, the Food Court end and the Scoreboard end) and corners (Zamboni Corner, Heritage Corner, Skate Hire Corner and the Fourth Corner (thanks, Ben Chalker!).
The new addition of all banners grouped by team and in order is very pleasing. It might add an unintended but welcome bonus of blocking some of the sun through the massive windows. It is also good advertising for hockey at Macquarie during the week when no hockey is being played.
Lightning Strikes Twice!
While we’re talking about the Lightning and Macquarie Ice Rink, let’s see how the Sirens/Lightning series went! With an altered pre-game, eyes were on the Brisbane Lightning to see how the flight delays would affect the team. They were playing a team who had most recently swept the Melbourne Ice at home.
Lightning themselves had only scored more than one goal in one out of their first four games of the season and had not recorded a win at this point. They had a tough series at home against the Adelaide Rush but had picked up a point after losing Sunday’s game in overtime.
In the first period of Saturday’s game, Brisbane went to the first zamboni break (and a rather sweet look at recent videos produced by the social media of the four teams involved in the weekend on the stream) with a 2-0 lead thanks to Allie Fischer.
Fischer scored a couple of bang-bang goals (two goals in quick succession) against Siren’s goaltender Nayoka Wellard, a last-start winner against the Ice in her first AWIHL win. Brisbane’s production was much better for this Saturday’s first period, registering six shots on Wellard. For the Sirens, they just outshot the Lightning, registering seven shots on Imogen Perry.
Period two was very similar to the first period. Brisbane has shown great improvement since the Rush series the previous week. Lightning spent a lot more time down in front of the Sirens’ net in attack.
Brisbane showed no ill-effects and seemingly no issues with their earlier pre-game flight dramas. Linda Bjorling for the Sirens caught the Lightning defence puck-watching later in period two for what would end up to be the Sirens’ only goal of the game.
Sam Brophy was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of a rebound. Wellard could only stretch so far with 42 seconds remaining in the period which saw the Lightning lead 3-1. Lightning outshot Sirens 7-6 in period two with only one second of penalty time officially recorded at the end of period two.
With the game poised with 20 minutes remaining in an afternoon of low shot counts, the game could have gone either way. Sirens started period three with a power play. Neither team scored on their three power plays of the afternoon.
A scoreless third period saw Brisbane claim its first win of the season. Brisbane outshot the Sirens narrowly in period three (6-5); however, across 60 minutes, the Sirens outshot the Lightning 20-19. I’m no Alyssa Longmuir or Gordon Goodenough in the stats department, but it was a very quiet game for both Perry and Wellard in terms of high-quality chances at their respective ends.
Sunday morning saw both teams return for their second game of the weekend. Imogen Perry reported for double duty after her first win of the season for the Lightning the previous day. Ella Licari started in net for the Sirens which matched what happened in the previous series against Melbourne Ice.
Sarah Edney opened the scoring on the powerplay for the Sirens early in period one with a wrist shot from the high slot three minutes into the game to give the Sirens their first lead of the weekend.
Sirens extended their lead near the halfway point of the period. Linda Bjorling drove to the net, and the puck was in front of Perry for what seemed like an eternity before finding itself on the stick of defender Gabby Arps, who beat Perry for a 2-0 Sirens lead. This would be Arps’ first AWIHL goal in her third season.
Towards the end of the first period, Lightning’s Sofia Molnarova topped off her busy weekend with her first AWIHL goal, clearing the puck into the net from the slot after she was left unattended, beating Licari. Brisbane narrowly outshot Sydney 9-8 in period one with Sydney leading 2-1 at the end of 20 minutes.
Courtney Mahoney opened the scoring seven minutes into the period to tie the game up at two all. Jaimi Goonan came across in defence from her own blue line and rushed to the opposite blue line, showing great speed. Goonan found Kate Barbour who connected with Mahoney at basically the same point that Goonan started the play from.
Mahoney had been dangerous all weekend without results until this point when she danced in from the left-hand side, leaving two Sirens skaters and Licari wondering what had just happened.
Not long after the Mahoney goal, Lightning captain Kelly Costa selected power drive from distance, thundering off the back wall well wide of Licari to her left. A Sirens player tried to clear the puck but delivered the puck express post to the stick of Allie Fischer who scored her third goal of the weekend. Brisbane powered well ahead on shots in period two with a 12-3 shot count.
With almost 90 seconds gone in the last period, Courtney Mahoney received the puck at the defensive left hand circle. She zoom zoomed down the right wing past both benches then cut in and attempted a drive by on Licari. Licari got enough of the puck to stop Mahoney who had continued skating towards the heritage Coke scoreboard without the puck.
But the puck was free, the puck was free, the puck was free in the blue paint. Kate Barbour cleaned up for the Lightning for her first AWIHL goal in her third season. Try as both teams might, no future additions were made to the scoreboard for the rest of the game with Lightning winning 4-2.
Shots on goal in the third period were tied nine apiece with a significant 30-20 difference for the entire game for the Lightning. Sirens converted one power-play goal courtesy of Sarah Edney out of their four attempts. Meanwhile, Lightning did not convert their two power plays.
Lightning will be very happy with their turnaround since the Saturday game against the Adelaide Rush and with two important wins to open their account in 2024/2025.
The two wins meant that Brisbane had a clean sweep against Sydney in Sydney, which is not an easy feat. The last time Brisbane won against Sydney in Sydney before this weekend was in 2014 at the long-demolished Sydney Ice Arena when Brisbane was known as the Brisbane Goannas.
Adelaide’s Going To Need A Faster Scoreboard!
I watched the Sirens/Lightning series in its entirety before I watched the Adelaide Rush/Melbourne Ice series from IceArena, Adelaide. The last time out for both teams could not have been very different. Rush went to Brisbane and had a regulation win and an overtime win. Meanwhile, Ice went to Sydney and was swept by the Sirens.
Even though I knew the results before writing this report, the first thing I noticed about this series compared to the Sirens/Lightning series was the speed of the two teams in Adelaide. The Ice would be keen to reverse the results of the previous series against the Sirens.
In net, Emma Moonen started for Adelaide as they have done for every series this season on Saturdays. Makayla Peers started for the Ice.
After a high-octane start by both teams, Jordan Kulbida did Jordan Kulbida things for her eighth goal of the season almost halfway through the first period. Near the Ice’s defensive blue line on the far side of the rink, Kulbida had plenty of chances to lose possession of the puck or to have the puck taken off her by the Ice players. Kulbida steamed through and went high blocker side on Peers.
Somewhat surprisingly, Kulbida’s goal was the only one of the period. The play was very fast and very physical, with only two penalties against Adelaide being called during the period. Shots favoured Adelaide 10-5 after 20 minutes although there seemed a lot more action about both nets than that!
The pace of the game continued in the second period. With just over three minutes gone, Emily Davis-Tope took the puck almost all the way down the ice for the Ice and looked to have Moonen beaten. With Ice celebrating, referee David Gall – who was much closer than I was but at a similar angle – immediately ruled no goal and play continued without complaint. It certainly deserved a goal!
Adelaide outshot the Ice in the second period with the arena seemingly tilted in favour of the home team. However, it was the Ice that scored a couple of bang-bang goals just two minutes apart. Ice captain Stephenie Cochrane scored the Ice’s first goal, assisted by long-time teammate Sharna Godfrey.
Godfrey scored Ice’s second goal, with Cochrane picking up a secondary assist. With 5.17 remaining in period two at the time of Godfrey’s goal, the Ice had taken the lead! Cochrane’s goal looked like a Hail Mary from a distance, but there was so much traffic in front of Moonen that I’m not sure how much of the puck Moonen saw of the Cochrane cannon.
Godfrey was left unattended at the back door after Danielle Butler had a lot of work to do and managed to find the Apex Predator all alone. Parity was restored soon afterwards courtesy of Rush’s Sierra Meroniuk roofing the puck at point-blank range for the game to be tied 2-2 after 40 minutes of play. Rush outshot the Ice 18-7 for the period.
It’s Multiball Time!
Hockey Hype Australia’s Sean O’Connor was watching this match live and the third period was off the chart as he was talking about what a period of scoring that was. Rather than describe each goal right now, here’s how the scoring went with 8 goals in 20 minutes of hockey.
- RUSH GOAL – Sierra Meroniuk 15.48 (3-2 Rush)
- RUSH GOAL – Jordan Kulbida 13.55 (4-2 Rush)
- RUSH GOAL – Jordan Kulbida 11.56 (5-2 Rush)
- ICE POWER PLAY GOAL – Danielle Butler 5.10 (Rush 5-3)
- RUSH SHORT HANDED GOAL – Jordan Kulbida 4.34 (Rush 6-3)
- RUSH SHORT HANDED GOAL – Kate Tihema 3.07 (Rush 7-3)
- ICE POWER PLAY GOAL – Christina Julien 2.25 (Rush 7 -4)
- ICE GOAL – Emily Davis-Tope 0.57 (Rush 7-5)
I love an analogy which can appeal to people who may not be familiar with hockey. Last time out against the Sirens, the Ice drove to Mt Disappointment twice on the one weekend. With the game in the balance, let’s look at how things turned out in the third period.
To me, the first two periods were like a game of pinball. Melbourne and Adelaide had their turn at the table; however, Adelaide made better use of their turns and had more opportunities to play the game. The third period was more like multiball, as both teams traded goals. A goalie in the butterfly position reminds me of the flippers of a pinball machine while the ice rink’s boards remind me of the bumpers of a pinball machine. The whole period wasn’t like playing multiball, but it certainly built up as the period continued!
Personal fun fact time – my first job after high school, while I was waiting for my results of the final year of high school, was working at Timezone. I stayed in the job over the summer before moving to higher education at the start of the next academic year. I could only play free games after I announced that I was leaving on the condition that it was quiet in the store and that I was only working with the store manager. I would hear the machines, including The Addams Family pinball, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, amongst others, in my sleep!
Who saw eight goals coming in the third period? We know both of these teams have excellent attacking players. With the score being 2-2, I know I was expecting a tight final.
It turned out to be a tight finish even with eight goals. It was almost like the first two periods were one game and the third period was a standalone game. Like a long game of pinball with several multiball periods, the third periods did have some ebbs and flows but when there was action, there was certainly action!
With a noticeable increase in the Ice’s tempo at the start of the third period, it was Meroniuk getting her second goal in a row. There was a board battle in Zamboni corner in the Rush’s attacking zone. Natalie Ayris and Kaitlyn Malthaner worked together to regain possession with Malthaner finding Meroniuk free in front of the Ice net, going high blocker side on Makayla Peers. Rush regain the lead!
The Jordan Kulbida Show for the Rush continued with her scoring the next two goals. Regaining possession near the Rush bench, there was a brief game of soccer with an Ice opponent and then powering away. Not for the first time this season, she cut across the Ice’s defensive zone before sniping Peers from the right hand circle. Not only did she have the Ice defensive corps to deal with but she also had to get past a team mate on the Rush’s attacking blue line as she drove towards the net!
Kulbida’s hat-trick goal followed soon after. Starting in a similar manner to the previous goal, traffic was a bit heavier on King William St near Rundle Mall. Instead of going wider towards the right-hand circle as she had done on the previous occasion, she turned in earlier, drove into the slot, and outdeked Peers.
It’s easier said than done to keep Kulbida out of the attacking zone, as Inferno, Lightning, and now Ice have found out firsthand. At either end of the ice, Moonen and Peers were throwing themselves around as both teams battled for goals, ably backed up by their defenders.
Danielle Butler scored a powerplay goal for the Ice to bring them back to two goals down. Sharna Godfrey fired from a distance from the left-hand side, with players from both teams scrambling in front of Moonen and the Rush net. In heavy traffic, Butler scored her fourth goal of the season as she cleaned up the loose puck and beat Moonen blocker side.
Not long after Butler’s goal, Kulbida was back in action at both ends of the ice. Godfrey was on the attack at the Ice attacking end before Kulbida and Godfrey came together. Some days you are off to the penalty box to feel shame but on this occasion with no whistle or no arm in the air from the referee, both teams played on in the corner.
Rush captain Tash Farrier quickly found Natalie Ayris who just as quickly found the Kulbida Express departing from the Rush’s defensive blue line. With her hat trick sealed with the last goal, Kulbida powered away towards the right-hand circle. She had Aspen Cooper for company on her left but went all alone, again beating Peers blocker side.
Cooper was an option, but the person with the puck is always more dangerous, especially when they are Jordan Kulbida. Not only did she have a hat trick but she had a hat-trick of goals in period three!
With just under four minutes to go, the Ice could be excused for closing the shop up for the afternoon being down 6-3. Trying to take advantage of a power play, Ice were on the attack but lost possession. Kaitlyn Malthaner broke away but Peers stood strong on the Malthaner attempt.
Kate Tihema had a lot of work to do while trying to take advantage of the rebound while being pressured by the Ice defence and eventually scored goal number six for the period while the Rush were short-handed.
Would Tihema’s goal be the exclamation point of the game? With 3.07 remaining and the Ice still on the power play, both teams weren’t finished yet. The Ice were certainly driving up the mountain and not giving up!
With Christina Julien in the driver’s seat, she sweetly dangled her way to her sixth goal of the season and the Ice’s fourth of the afternoon. Against another team, four goals in an afternoon may have been enough to secure the win, but when the team at the other end is the current Adelaide Rush team, four goals may be far from enough!
The last goal of the period and the game came to Ice’s Emily Davis-Tope. Denied a potential goal earlier, she needed a couple of attempts to beat Moonen at point blank range after gaining possession in the former Eric Brook (and current Eric Balnar) commentary corner. After the EDT goal, Ice received another power play and pulled Peers for the extra attacker in a last minute push.
In the end, Emma Moonen picked up their second win for the season for the Rush, facing 28 shots. At the other end of the Ice, Makayla Peers faced 40 shots for the Ice. Rush was unable to score on their two power plays but did score two short-handed goals. Meanwhile, Ice scored on two out of their seven power plays.
It’s A New Morning After The Day Before
A Sunday morning start saw Kayla Best start in net for the Ice while Emma Moonen stayed in net for the Rush. This is Moonen’s first Sunday start with either Claudia Tom (against Inferno) or Rebecca Kempe (against Lightning) previously starting on Sundays.
Ice didn’t have long to wait for their first goal. Not for the first time this season, Danielle Butler scored the first goal for the Ice a couple of minutes in. Butler found the puck behind the Rush net and found the back door open, squeezing the puck in next to Moonen’s left post.
With the speed of the game reduced – quite understandably – from Saturday afternoon, Rush were the next to score a few minutes later. Rush captain Tash Farrier delivered a nice stretch pass to Jamie Lunn who was behind the last Ice defence. Lunn fired from the left hand circle and cleanly found Best’s five hole and the back of the net.
There was an extended delay in the period, and some repairs were needed. In previous AW history, with only a short intermission and no ice cut in the first intermission, this length of break may have been appreciated by the players, who had 4.07 before the first intermission. Ultimately, the first intermission was called early to allow the repairs to be made.
27 minutes later, play resumed in the Rush attacking zone where play had previously stopped to complete the first period after the ice repairs. Rush narrowly outshot the Ice 10-9 in the first period compared to the previous day’s 10-5, suggesting that the Ice were finding it a little easier to get shots on compared to Saturday.
The first two periods of this series were very similar, with lots of end-to-end hockey and good chances for both teams. Because of the earlier extended delay, both teams simply changed ends after time expired in period one and went straight into period two.
Rush opened the scoring early in the second period. There was a union meeting in the left hand corner of Adelaide’s attacking zone. Torie Cybulski went and took the puck from the corner and immediately found Aspen Cooper on the blue line.
Cooper found her defensive partner, Maya Tupper, via a deflection from an Ice player. Tupper fired from the high slot and was inches from scoring herself with the puck hitting the post at the intersection of the upright and the frame. Best had already moved to her left to block Tupper’s initial shot.
The juicy rebound landed on the stick of Cybulski, who had positioned herself into the slot and took advantage of a wide-open net as Best was still near her left-hand post, giving Adelaide a 2-1 lead.
Adelaide also scored the last goal of the period with Jordan Kulbida firing in from the blue line while the Rush were on a power play. A rebound off Best was gobbled up by Sierra Meroniuk at point blank range, tapping it in on the front door step for a power play goal. Rush narrowly outshot the Ice in the second period 11-9.
Once again, there was certainly a lot more action than the raw stats suggest. With 20 minutes to play, this game could go either way. Based on the previous day’s third period, this game could do anything! Rush took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
With just over a minute gone in the period, Kulbida went from coast to coast as she went north at a great speed, leaving the Ice to grab at her shadow. That drive was close as the puck hit the frame or netting at the scoreboard end. Rush kept possession, finding Aspen Cooper on the right hand side of the attacking blue line.
Cooper delivered a peach of a pass to Kulbida who selected power drive and beat Best blocker side for her fifth and final goal of the weekend. She was on fire, just like my Hockey Hype Australia colleagues Abbey Richards and Sean O’Connor were in the graphics department this weekend. It was also another power-play goal for the Rush.
The last few minutes saw both teams score to end their weekends. Melbourne Ice captain Stephenie Cochrane fired from distance near the blue line close to the Rush bench as she was quarterbacking an Ice power play. The Rush bench would have seen more of the puck than Moonen would have as there was a lot of traffic in front and Moonen was beaten high glove side.
Almost instantly, Aspen Cooper replied with a goal that Jordan Kulbida would have been proud of as she moved through from her left and beat Best five-hole. Down 5-2 with 40 seconds remaining, Ice called a time-out and pulled goalie Kayla Best for the extra attacker.
This would be the second time this had happened over the weekend, with a similar result the previous day. Rush would take the game 5-2, but Ice was a lot closer than that score indicates. They are certainly playing better than a team that has lost four games in a row. Ice outshot Rush 12-6 in the last period and narrowly outshot Rush 30-27 for the game.
In the end, Emma Moonen had a wonderful weekend with two wins, saving 28 from 30 shots on Sunday to go along with their 23 from 28 shots on Saturday. It is their third win in a row including the Saturday win against Brisbane Lightning. At the other end of the … well … ice, Ice goalies also had a busy weekend. Kayla Best saved 22 from 27 shots on Sunday. Makayla Peers saved 33 of 40 shots on Saturday.
There were a lot of opportunities for special teams in this series with Rush converting two from six power plays on Sunday and zero from two on Saturday. Saturday’s tally for Adelaide did include two short-handed goals. Ice had lots of power play chances on Sunday, converting only one out of 10 power plays. On Saturday, they converted two from seven power plays.
Playing In The AWIHL Is Like Playing Snakes And Ladders
After the weekend’s action and the sweeps by Brisbane Lightning and Adelaide Rush, the competition table looks very different in week four before the sweeps compared to week five after the sweeps.
Adelaide Rush stays in first position for both weeks. Despite not having played in a month by the start of week six, Perth Inferno are still in second place.
Sirens remain in third place for both weeks. In week four, Melbourne Ice were in fourth position but had Brisbane Lightning leapfrog over them after week five. Melbourne Ice have now been swept in their last two series against Sydney Sirens and Adelaide Rush to finish the weekend in fifth position, partly as a result of Brisbane’s sweep at Macquarie. There’s a long way to go before the Finals in Melbourne in March 2025, though!
Looking Forward To Week Six and Seven
Well hello, Perth Inferno! Welcome back to the AWIHL! After last playing in Adelaide a month ago, Perth returns to competitive hockey against the Brisbane Lightning. The Lightning have momentum after sweeping Sirens while on the road at Macquarie. Let’s hope that they have no issues with their planes this week.
Brisbane to Perth is a looooonnnnngggg flight in domestic terms. Let’s see what Inferno have learnt about themselves and the Lightning in the penultimate weekend before the Christmas break in the only series in week six. This will be Lightning’s last series before the Christmas break.
Looking forward briefly to the following weekend that is the last weekend before the Christmas break, Melbourne Ice and Adelaide Rush resume their battles from week 5 while Perth Inferno play for their second week in a row against Sydney Sirens at Macquarie Ice Rink. By the time week 7 finishes on Sunday December 15, we’ll be at the halfway point of the season with every team having played eight games.
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