Wellington Seals - Ice Hockey Team

14/03/2026

Wellington “Old Seals” Crowned Kiwi Masters Champions in Dunedin 🏒🏆

The Wellington Old Seals have been crowned Kiwi Masters Champions after a hard-fought and exciting final against the local Dunedin Hoiho.

In a tightly contested game, the Old Seals showed tremendous determination, teamwork, and work ethic to secure a 2–1 victory, bringing the Kiwi Masters trophy back to Wellington.

Throughout the tournament the team continued to improve game by game, demonstrating discipline, strong defensive play, and relentless pressure. Coach and Team Captain Steve Pause praised the squad’s effort and commitment, highlighting the team’s unity and resilience throughout the competition.

A special congratulations goes to Liam Bissel, who delivered an outstanding performance in net and was deservedly awarded “Goalie of the Tournament.” His consistency and key saves played a crucial role in the Old Seals’ championship run.

The victory caps off a fantastic tournament for the Wellington side and reflects the team’s new motto moving forward:

Accountability – Passion – Success

Congratulations to the Wellington Old Seals on an incredible achievement and a well-deserved Kiwi Masters Championship title. 🎉

09/09/2025

Congratulations to the Seals Premier Team!

We’re proud to announce the Seals roster that will be heading to Auckland this November to compete for the National Premier Title 🏆

After back-to-back championships, the Seals are chasing a three-peat and bringing a team full of talent, experience, and determination. 💪

November is shaping up to be an exciting month of hockey — stay tuned for updates as the journey unfolds!

09/07/2025

2025 Auckland Premier Cup Team Selection!

The Wellington Seals are heading north this November for the 2025 Auckland Premier Cup, taking place at the 8th & 9 of November.

Trials for the Seals Prems (Division A) will be held on Wednesday, July 23rd, July 30th and August 6th from 20:00-21:30 at Daytona Adventure Park.

We strongly encourage any player interested in joining the Seals Prems team to attend these sessions. If you’re unable to make it, please inform one of the selectors in advance. Remember, you must be registered with WIHA to participate in the trials. This is also an Adult tournament so must be 18+ to play in the tournament.

After the final trial on August 6th the selectors will convene to choose the team. They will confirm selections with each player individually. Please make sure to complete and submit the attached Google form so the selectors know who is available. Once all confirmations are in, the team will be publicly announced.

Selectors:

Gabriel Bianchi
Joel Ashworth
Stephen Pause
Liam Roth

Follow the link below to register your interest for the tournament team:

The Wellington Prems Team is travelling up to Auckland as the “Back to Back” champion to compete from Saturday November 8th to Sunday November 9th with the vision of bringing home the "SHIELD" for the 3rd year in a row! 🥇

11/04/2025

🏒 Masters Tournament 2025 – A Player’s Perspective 🥄

We love seeing our community out there representing the Seals with heart, humour, and true team spirit. Here’s a recap from one of our players, Bonnie De Gros, who played in this year’s Masters Tournament in Dunedin:

“Masters Tournament 2025, what a hoot! There were 14 of us who represented the Wellington Seals for this year’s Masters Tournament in Dunedin. We ended up taking home the Golden Spoon Award, coming in last place BUT having earned the honorary place as the respected underdogs. Heinz took home the award for being the oldest player in the tournament! What a guy!

This was the first time playing on full-size ice for some of us, and the first time playing 5 vs 5 for several of us, too. Though our team was less experienced overall than the other teams, what we lacked in skills we made up for in grit and spirit. We gave it our all, and had a heck of a fun time doing it! We played 7 games over 3 days and had an awesome time getting to hangout together in between, while nursing our sore joints and aching muscles. If anyone is considering Masters Tournament for next year, I cannot recommend it enough. Bring on 2026!”

Thanks for the great write-up, Bonnie — and well done to the whole crew for taking on the challenge with such a great attitude!

29/01/2025

🏆 QT Cup Recap – Seals Win B Division! 🏆

The Wellington Seals took home the B Division championship this past weekend at the QT Cup, going undefeated and shutting out the Queenstown Kiwis 4-0 in the final!

This squad featured a mix of our premier players and some U18 & U16 talents making their Seals debut. Nico, Connor, Zeb, and Wesley all had standout performances, with Wes leading the division in scoring!

Beyond the wins, it was an epic weekend filled with sun, great food, and a lot of fast-paced hockey to watch. Some of our players also stepped in with an A Grade, team joining the Miners, this team with a few Dunedin & Canterbury players was able to secure bronze. 🥉

A fantastic showing for Wellington—Seals pride was strong in Queenstown! 🦭🏒

11/12/2024

We’re excited to announce the Seals that are heading to Queenstown at the end of January! This year’s team features some of our experienced Seals players and some younger Seals making their tournament debut.

The Seals are ready to make waves at the Queenstown Cup, and we can’t wait to see them in action. Let’s show them our support as they hit the ice and represent Wellington proudly!

📸 Meet the team in the post below.

13/11/2024

SEALS ARE BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPS!

There was some excitement en route to securing back-to-back Premier Championships for the Seals! The Seals started the tournament with two wins and one loss but went into the second day confident they could regain their winning form. After a festive end to the first day of action, the Seals returned to the ice in the early morning and looked in top form. Their first two games followed an identical sequence of events, where the Seals would lead after the first half only to squander those leads and end up on the losing side of their first two morning games. Despite losing games that the Seals should have won, they picked themselves back up, took a break away from the rink, went to a local mall for a feed, and then returned to the hotel for a nap to rejuvenate. And then the tables turned.

The Seals returned to the Botany arena for the afternoon games and to decide their fate in the playoffs. A win in the final game of round-robin play placed the Seals third of seven and secured a spot in the semi-final against the Goons, a team that had beaten the Seals the day before. The Goons pulled out all the stops, bringing in a ringer last minute, but their efforts were no match for a relentless Seals forecheck. No matter where they skated on the ice, the Goons found out that the Seals weren’t going to let them get to that final game. Liam Roth, Nick Grinter and the Seals D corps killed a huge penalty in the final 2 minutes of that semi to SEAL the victory in the semi-final, sending the Seals to finals against the Free Agents, a team that upset the undefeated top seed Deja Vu in the other semi-final.

There was no storybook ending for the cinderella Free Agents. The strategy that coach/player Joel Ashworth devised worked to perfection and every single player on the Seals took it to the Free Agents in the final. It was evenly matched for the first half of the game and then the Free Agents made a crucial mistake, taking a tripping call to go down a man. It took a period and 2 minutes into the second half to score but the Seals got a power play goal to go up by one and then Ryan Chanyi buried one of his patented wrap-around goals to close it out. The Seals would not have been able to win this game without a shutout performance from Liam Bissell, who faced several high-danger scoring chances but turned them all away en route to a Seals victory. The Seals played perfect hockey to close out the semi-final and final games of the tournament and it was clear who deserved to win that tournament. The Seals are proud to bring the New Zealand Premier League 4 on 4 Championship shield back to Wellington, where it belongs!

19/08/2024

2024 Auckland Premier Cup Team Selection!

The Wellington Seals are heading north this November for the 2024 Auckland Premier Cup, taking place from the 8th to the 10th of November.

Trials for the Seals Prems (Division A) will be held on Wednesday, August 21st, August 28th, and September 4th from 20:00-21:30 at Daytona Adventure Park.

We strongly encourage any player interested in joining the Seals Prems team to attend these sessions. If you’re unable to make it, please inform one of the selectors in advance. Remember, you must be registered with WIHA to participate in the trials.

After the final trial on September 4th, the selectors will convene to choose the team. They will confirm selections with each player individually. Please make sure to complete and submit the attached Google form so the selectors know who is available. Once all confirmations are in, the team will be publicly announced.

Selectors:

Gabriel Bianchi
Joel Ashworth
Stephen Pause
Pete Zajac
Liam Roth

Follow the link below to register your interest for the tournament team:

The Wellington Prems Team is travelling up to Auckland as last years champion to compete from Friday November 8th to Sunday November 10th with the vision of bringing home the "SHIELD" for another year!

08/07/2024

05/07/2024

Come and watch an exciting game this Sunday at 4pm!

The team representing the Wellington Seals will be:

Nico Albornett
Joel Ashworth
Gabriel Bianchi
Ryan Chanyi
Sean Dunbar
Nick Grinter
Caleb Hance
Steve Pause
Liam Roth
Connor Smith
Joanna Styles
Mischa Saunders
Pete Zajac

Travis Ancelet (G)
Lucy Thomas(G)

You are cordially invited to attend the Tour of Hope in Wellington at Daytona Adventure Park in Upper Hutt on Sunday, July 7. The official ceremonial puck drop will be at 16:00 as the Canadian Northern Ice Indigenous Ice Hockey Team will play against the Wellington Seals. The tour is a cultural exchange that promotes the importance of education and sport as a pathway for young Indigenous youth to see the world and what it has to offer them. After the game, there will be a meet and greet with a photo op for all players from both teams along with the dignitaries and guests.

15/05/2024

A huge thanks to the Phoenix Thunder for inviting us down to play our first ever games against NZIHL competition!

It was an amazing weekend, with the hard work and flashes of brilliance shown by the Seals making for some exciting hockey, but in the end we were bested by the strength and speed of the Dunedin squad. We'll be back on the ice soon at Daytona Adventure Park to continue to train and build the team in preparation for some more exhibition games in the near future, and we look forward to one day soon having a Wellington NZIHL team!