Looking for more international competition, Australia and New Zealand's women's teams will face off in the new Tasman Ice Hockey Challenge.
Looking for more international competition, Australia and New Zealand's women's teams will face off in the new Tasman Ice Hockey Challenge.
The Rivalry Series between Canada and USA is certainly one of the most heated in women's hockey, but they aren't the only neighboring nations facing off this Fall. Australia and New Zealand are set to play a two game series as part of the 2024 Trans Tasman Ice Hockey Challenge. Both national federations believed they needed more international competition.
The two game series takes place October 19 and October 20 at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in Warners Bay, Australia, with the New Zealand Ice Fernz and Aussie Flyers, as the team's nickname themselves, drop the puck.
"This is an exciting time for ice hockey," said New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation president Andy Mills said. "Our domestic women’s league has been growing in popularity, so the time is right to showcase the spectacle of our national women’s team against our closest rivals Australia.”
Ice Hockey Australia President, Ryan O’Handley echoed New Zealand's sentiment, “I am thrilled to be announcing this series with our friends from New Zealand. We have tremendous momentum behind women’s ice hockey right now and the skill and level of play in the AWIHL continues to increase. It will be an amazing series for our national women’s team and our fans”.
The two teams are evenly matched both competing in the World Championship Division II-B tournament, with Australia ranked 31st globally, followed by New Zealand who is ranked 33rd.
Australia returns long time national team members including Sharna Godfrey, who is the nation's all-time leading scorer at the World Championships, along with second all-time scorer Michelle Clark-Crumption and captain Stephanie Cochrane.
New Zealand is in a similar situation bringing back the bulk of their veterans, but the team is also adding American born forward Kellye Nelson for the first time, a player who should provide a boost to their attack.
Both national teams will be composed almost exclusively of players competing domestically for this event.
New Zealand's Jasmine Horner-Pascoe was the leading scorer and MVP this past season in the New Zealand Women's Ice Hockey League. She led the Auckland Steel to back-to-back Goulding Cup titles.
Michelle Clark-Crumpton topped the Australia Women's Ice Hockey League in scoring this season notching 38 points in 16 games. The Canadian born forward is an alumni of Queen's University.