CWHL announces 2018-19 season schedule

The Canadian Women’s Hockey League announced their 2018-19 regular season schedule this afternoon. Each team will play 28 games during the season, with each North American team visiting China for three games in one week. The CWHL All-Star game also returns on the weekend of January 19-20, 2019.

The streaming schedule is not yet set, so check out the CWHL website, or Women’s Hockey Wednesday will have the CWHL schedule for each week.

Toronto Furies

Chris Tanouye / CWHL

The Furies open their season at home on Saturday October 13 against the newly christened Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays (which by consensus we are shortening to the Shenzhen Rays). That’s a three-game series, including a Wednesday weeknight home game on October 17.

They have six games each against Shenzhen, Worcester and Calgary, with only five games against both Markham and Montréal. The three-game China trip comes at the end of January. Their schedule is generally front-loaded with home games, with only three (possibly four) games at home in 2019, all in February. There’s one home game against the Thunder that has yet to be scheduled, so we’ll update you as soon as we know about that one.

Times for home games are less regular than last season (including two more with times TBD), so check the schedule. If I was a betting woman I’d say that 3:45 pm Saturday February 16 game against Markham looks like a candidate for broadcast on Sportsnet.

All home games are currently expected to take place at the Mastercard Centre for Hockey Excellence. All times are Eastern.

Markham Thunder

Chris Tanouye / CWHL

The Thunder also open their season at home on Saturday October 13, facing the recently relocated Worcester Blades. There’s sure to be some sort of banner raising ceremony, so if you like that sort of thing, head on down. The first Clarkson Cup rematch comes on Thursday October 25 when Markham hosts Shenzhen for the first time.

The Rays return the favour immediately following the 4 Nations Cup (November 6-10) when the Thunder head to China in mid-November. That three-game series will be the last time Markham and Shenzhen meet until, possibly, the playoffs.

As with last year, generally home games are at 7:30 pm on Saturdays and 12:30 pm on Sundays, although there are a few exceptions. The Thunder enter their second season at the Thornhill Community Centre. All times are Eastern.

Pre-season

Both the Thunder and the Furies are now into their second week of try-outs. All try-outs are open to the public.

If you want to wait til the lineups are more final, they have a few pre-season games scheduled:

• The Thunder will head south of the border to take on Mercyhurst University at 4:30 pm on Saturday September 22. Any fans in the Erie, PA area should show up and support!
• The Furies will run a “controlled scrimmage” playing 5 on 4 and special situations against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on Wednesday September 26 at Varsity Arena at 6:00 pm.

• The two GTA teams will renew their rivalry with a game against each other at 4:30 pm on Sunday, September 30 at the Aurora Community Centre as part of the Central York Girls Hockey Association’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

Tickets

Ticket information is not formally available but the Blades announced last week that their tickets would go on sale on Thursday, September 13 so I’d suggest checking out the CWHL website about then.