After a wait spanning over two years, women’s international hockey finally takes the stage again this week in Calgary, Alberta. The Women’s World Championship, which was postponed in 2020 and again early in 2021, was relocated from Halifax. Just a few short months ago, it seemed the event wouldn’t happen at all.
It’s an important one with the Olympics looming and seeding still in flux. The Group A teams — USA, Canada, Switzerland, Russia, and Finland — are already locked in. Group B has a chance for the top team entering Group A next season.
Here is a look at the tournament:
Teams to watch
USA and Canada. The only two squads to win Olympic gold medals and projected to be the favorites once again in Beijing, there’s a lot we’ll learn about the USA and Canada in this tournament.
USA is without plenty of gold-medal winners from 2018, including Meghan Duggan and the Lamoureux twins. Goalie Maddie Rooney is also injured, so Northeastern goaltender Aerin Frankel enters the fold alongside Alex Cavallini and Nicole Hensley.
This Worlds will be a strong indicator of how dedicated the U.S., behind new coach Joel Johnson, will be toward young talent. Jesse Compher and Abby Roque have made noise since their international debuts and are projected to be huge pieces of the Olympic roster. High-schooler Caroline Harvey was a surprise addition to the team this cycle.
In Canada, they’re looking to avenge a quarterfinal loss to Finland that forced them into bronze in 2019. Their young defense will try to make up for the loss of Laura Fortino, the top Canadian defender in 2019. Ella Shelton, Claire Thompson and Ashton Bell are in the tournament for the first time, and Jaime Bourbonnais is in just her second.
Players to watch
Aerin Frankel (USA), Alina Müller (Switzerland), Marie-Philip Poulin (Canada). Frankel was one of the more glaring omissions of the initial U.S. centralization roster, but with Rooney out the young star goalie made it. She won the Patty Kazmaier award for the best women’s college hockey player this season.
Her Northeastern teammate, Müller, has risen to become one of the best players in the world representing a hungry Switzerland squad. She’s known for scoring seven goals in six games in the Olympics at age 19. She had 38 points in 25 games in college this season.
Poulin is one of the best players in the world and was injured for the bulk of the 2019 tournament. Her 2021 performance in the PWHPA’s short Canadian tournament, though, was a solid indication the captain can still perform at the highest level.
Dark-horse team
Czech Republic. In 2019 — the last time there was an international women’s hockey event — the Czech Republic swept Group B, going 4-0. Now ranked seventh in the world by the IIHF, it has a chance to make an even bigger leap.
Former Boston Pride forwards Tereza Vanisova and Denisa Krizova lead a stellar forward group, with former Metropolitan Riveters defender Sammy Kolowrat heading the blue line. Goaltender Klára Peslarová broke out in 2019 and helped the Czechs relegate Sweden. Center Kateřina Mrázová, a 28-year-old who has dominated the SDHL, is likely one of the more overlooked international stars in the world.
The Czechs have yet to play in an Olympics, but have a real shot to crack that platform this time. They’re projected to be the class of Group B — which includes Germany, Japan, Denmark, and Hungary — with the chance to pull another upset this year.
Dark-horse player
Elisa Holopainen, Finland. Holopainen is still a teenager, and that’s scary for the rest of the world. The Finnish scorer netted 39 goals in Naisten Liiga with KalPa, which was 20 more than the next-highest goal scorer.
Finland always makes a lot of noise on the international stage, and came close to winning gold in the 2019 tournament before the game-winning overtime goal was taken away and they fell to the USA in a shootout. No doubt, they’ll be hungry this time, with Holopainen establishing herself further.
Whale bulking up; Rivs shaking up
In the NWHL, the Connecticut Whale and Metropolitan Riveters have had near opposite offseasons. Though the Riveters have lost some franchise-altering players — defenders Saroya Tinker, Kiira Dosdall-Arena, and Rebecca Morse, goalie Tera Hofmann — the Whale has kept adding.
In addition to early signings Kennedy Marchment and Allie Munroe from overseas, the Whale poached Morse and forward Cailey Hutchison away from the Riveters.
The Rivs ended up with former Toronto defender Kristen Barbara and an entire new-look blue line. Along with losing Morse, Tinker, and Dosdall-Arena, they added former Beauts defender Lenka Čurmová and Rachel Ade from the Whale.
PWHPA switches to Boston hub
Moving out of New Hampshire seemed near inevitable with former hub manager Bill Flanagan making the leap to the NWHL in early August.
A Boston hub will replace New Hampshire for the third edition of the Dream Gap Tour, with a schedule yet to be announced. Previously, they played in Hudson, New Hampshire, where Flanagan was also the general manager of a boys junior team out of the same arena.
Boston has no shortage of talented players — most will likely be the same who would have been in New Hampshire for a third cycle — but is in direct competition with the Isobel Cup champion Pride of the NWHL. Already, former NH goalie Katie Burt returned to the Pride as a surprise offseason signing.
Many prominent PWHPA players are currently at the World Championships and will stay centralized ahead of the 2022 Olympics, meaning the PWHPA roster will be considerably downsized. Given other losses, it’ll be curious to see what kind of a team is fielded in the new spot, and with COVID-19 regulations still in place, how teams will see each other across the border, too.
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