Cathy Phillips

Canadian ice hockey player

Cathy Phillips (born August 7, 1960) is a Canadian retired ice hockey player and coach. A seventeen season goaltender in the Central Ontario Women's Hockey League (COWHL), she also played with the Canadian women's national ice hockey team. Phillips won gold medals at the first Canadian Women's Hockey Nationals in 1982, the first World Women's Hockey Tournament in 1987 (also known as the 'Unofficial Women's Worlds'), and at the first IIHF Women's World Championship in 1990.

Phillips grew up in Burlington, Ontario and attended Burlington Central High School, where she participated in both basketball and track and field. However, her primary athletic interests were ice hockey and fastball, which she played with local Burlington community teams. Her senior level club ice hockey career began at age 13, at which time she began playing in the Central Ontario Women's Hockey League (COWHL), the predecessor of the National Women's Hockey League (1999–2007) and the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; 2007–2019). She played with teams in both Hamilton and Burlington. Phillips was the most distinguished net minder to ever play in the COWHL, during her seventeen seasons in the league she was voted top goaltender fourteen times and COWHL Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice. Her highest goals against average (GAA) in a season was just 1.78 and she posted a season GAA below 1.00 three times. At the inaugural Canadian Women's Hockey Nationals (also called the Esso Women's Hockey Nationals) in 1982, Phillips was the gold medal winning goaltender. Playing with Team Ontario, she held Team Alberta to a tie in regulation, allowing Ontario to claim victory in overtime. She went on to play in the subsequent six tournaments, collecting a total of four gold medals, one silver, and two bronze while representing Ontario.