Ice Hockey Australia have announced the creation of the Australian Tier 2 Women’s Ice Hockey League (A2WIHL) with the Series 1 set to begin tomorrow at the Phillip Ice Skating Centre. Series 1 will run on 19 March and 20 March 2016 and includes four teams; Victorian White Dragons, Victorian Black Dragons (includes WA and ACT players), New South Wales Bombers and Canberra Pirates. The formation of the A2WIHL is designed to act as a feeder league to the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey League (AWIHL).
The league will be played under some modified rules in order to keep to time constraints. Game duration will be three periods of 17 minutes with no stop time and two-minute breaks between periods. The league is open to players 14 years and over however AWIHL players can only compete with league approval. There is also no overtime period or shootouts due to the time constraints. As a result, games can be tied and point allocation has been modified with three points for a win, two for a tie and one for a loss.
Series 2 of the A2WIHL is scheduled for 9 July and 10 July 2016 at the O’Brien Group Arena with a South Australian team expected to join. A third series is also planned for New South Wales later in the year.
For more information see the official announcement by Ice Hockey Australia (reproduced here due to lack of publication elsewhere).
Series 1 schedule:
- Game 1: White Dragons – Bombers (12:25, 19 March 2016)
- Game 2: Black Dragons – Pirates (15:45, 19 March 2016)
- Game 3: White Dragons – Pirates (17:00, 19 March 2016)
- Game 4: Black Dragons – Bombers (18:15, 19 March 2016)
- Game 5: White Dragons – Pirates (06:30, 20 March 2016)
- Game 6: White Dragons – Black Dragons (07:45, 20 March 2016)
- Game 7: Bombers – Pirates (09:00, 20 March 2016)
- Game 8: White Dragons – Black Dragons (12:15, 20 March 2016)
- Game 9: Bombers – Black Dragons (15:45, 20 March 2016)
- Game 10: Bombers – Pirates (17:00, 20 March 2016)
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