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The Angela James Bowl was introduced in 2007-08 to recognize the top points scorer in the newly formed Canadian Women's Hockey League. The trophy was donated in order to help preserve the statistical history of the new league and to help tell the story of women's hockey at the club level. The trophy was named in honour of Angela James, a former women's hockey standout who played in the old Central Ontario Women’s Hockey League and National Women's Hockey League. On March 22, 2008, Ms. James was on hand at the first CWHL Final to present the Angela James Bowl to CWHL's first scoring champion, Jennifer Botterill.
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Angela James
Angela James was a long-time member of the North York/Beatrice Aeros. She also played for the Hamilton Golden Hawks and Newtonbrook Panthers. She was a three-time scoring champion in the Central Ontario Women’s Hockey League and the first-ever goal-scoring champion in the National Women’s Hockey League. At the international level, she won four-straight gold medals at the IIHF Women’s World Championships, leading Canada with 34 points after those first four IIHF tournaments. In 2008, she was one of the first women players inducted into the IIHF Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2010, she was one of the first women players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Winners
Jennifer Botterill was the 2007-08 scoring champion, overtaking runner-up Jayna Hefford in the final weekend of the regular season. Botterill scored 61 points, three more than Hefford who had led the scoring race for much of the season. Hefford then won the 2008-09 scoring title, setting a league record with 69 points after opening up a 10-point lead on runner-up Caroline Ouellette who had led the race for much of the season. In 2009-10, it was Sabrina Harbec who won the title with an 11-point lead over runner-up Lindsay Vine.
In 2010-11, it was Caroline Ouellette's turn to win the trophy, scoring a 68 points while winning by an incredible 23-point margin over runner-up Jayna Hefford. In 2011-12, teammate Meghan Agosta became the first rookie to win the scoring title, scoring a new record 80 points and winning the race by 14 points over Ouellette. Agosta was the third different Stars de Montréal player to win the title in three successive seasons (Harbec-Ouellette-Agosta).
In 2012-13, Meghan Agosta became the first two-time winner of the Angela James Bowl, winning her second-straight CWHL scoring title by a 13-point margin over rookie teammate Ann-Sophie Bettez. One year later, Bettez won the title, winning by a five-point margin over teammate Sarah Vaillancourt.
Following the 2016-17 CWHL season, there was a tie in the scoring race for the Angela James Bowl, the first time that this occurred. Both Jess Jones from the Brampton Thunder and Marie-Philip Poulin of Les Canadiennes de Montreal finished the season with 37 points. Of note, Jones would score 17 goals during the season, while Poulin logged 15.
The Trophy
Incidentally, the Angela James Bowl is the oldest trophy associated with the Canadian Women's Hockey League, initiated in the league's inaugural 2007-08 season. The trophy is 28.8 centimeters tall. Each season's winner is recognized on a small black plaque that reads "CWHL Top Scorer" (with the player's name and season).
A small personal trophy has also been created for each winner. The player trophy reads "Angela James Bowl" with the winner's name and winning season. Of interest, Meghan Agosta's 2011-12 player trophy reads "Meghan Agosta" while her 2012-13 player trophy reads "Meghan Agosta-Marciano" (as she was married in between the two seasons).