2024 IIHF Women's World Championship
Wednesday, April 3 through Sunday, April 14
Adirondack Bank Center, Utica, New York
6 Gophers – including 4 for Team USA – participating in the tournament
Six (6) representatives of the Minnesota Women's Hockey program are headed to the upcoming 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women's World Championship, being held at the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, NY, starting this Wednesday, April 3, and continuing through Sunday, April 14. The tournament returns to the United States for the first time since 2017.
Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy, Kelly Pannek, and Grace Zumwinkle were named to Team USA's roster yesterday following completion of the U.S. National Team Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid. They will be joined in Utica by Finland's Nelli Laitinen and Sweden's Josefin Bouveng.
Tournament preview – The host Americans enter the tournament as defending champions after having claimed gold last year in Toronto, defeating Canada 6-3 in the championship game. The Canadians look to return the favor of winning on their rival's home ice. They are joined by Switzerland, Czechia, and Finland in Group A. Under the current tournament format, all five teams automatically qualify for the elimination round.
After appearing in Group A last year, Japan returns to Group B for the 2024 tournament. They are joined by Sweden, Germany, and newly-promoted China & Denmark. The top three teams in the group after the preliminary round will advance to elimination round, while the bottom two teams will be relegated to Division 1 Group A for 2025.
Sweden and Denmark will play in the tournament's opening game on Wednesday, April 3, at 11 a.m. ET / 10 a.m. CT, Finland and Czechia will face off in their first game that afternoon at 3 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. CT, and the U.S. will open its title defense at 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT against Switzerland. Canada, Japan, China and Germany will play their first games on Thursday, April 4. The full schedule of games can be found here. The tournament opener and all Team USA games will be broadcast live on NHL Network.
Additional tournament notes –
The 2024 Women's World Championship has a slight format difference than the 2023 edition. This year's 5th-place game will be played by the two highest-ranked teams not winning in the quarterfinals, rather than through a consolation playoff of all four quarterfinal-losing teams.
As reported by The Hockey News in mid-March, China will not allow dual passport players to compete on its team in Utica. Per the article, those players bore much of the responsibility for the team's promotion into the top division.
Pre-tournament exhibitions –
USA 6, Czechia 1 (Saturday) – Six different Americans lit the lamp, including Gopher representatives Abbey Murphy, Grace Zumwinkle, and Taylor Heise. The U.S. outshot the Czechs, 33-16, with Gwyneth Philips making 15 saves for Team USA.
Canada 8, Finland 2 (Saturday) – Finland held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 on goals by Sofianna Sundelin and Petra Nieminen (PP), plus 24 saves by Sanni Ahola over the first half of the contest. However, a goaltender change for the Finns did not work out well as Anni Keisala stopped only 15 of the 22 shots she faced. Blayre Turnbull recorded 2 goals and an assist for Team Canada, Sarah Nurse & Julia Gosling each added a goal and an assist, and Ann-Renee Desbiens & Emerance Maschmeyer combined for 19 saves.
Switzerland 5, Sweden 2 (Saturday) – The Swiss outshot the Swedes 35-23. No further details were available.
At least one more game is scheduled for today (Monday, 4/1) as Germany faces Switzerland.
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