The Rest of the World At the Women’s World Championship
Here is everything that happened at the Division IA, IB, IIA, IIB Women’s World Championships, and insight into each team that participated.
While the top ten national teams battled it out in Czechia, the IIHF held tournaments for 24 other teams to try to climb up the rankings and compete for gold within their division. Some of these tournaments include top players ranging from Anna Meixner to Nadia Mattivi to Karolina Późniewska, and all include players who will play next season in various elite club and collegiate leagues. Here is everything that happened at the Division IA, IB, IIA, IIB Women’s World Championships, and insight into each team that participated.
Division IA
Photo via eishockey_oesterreich on Instagram
Promoted: Denmark, Austria (first ever top division promotion)
Relegated: Netherlands
Final standings: 1) Austria 2) Denmark 3) Slovakia 4) France 5) China 6) Netherlands
IIHF Top Goalkeeper: Selma Luggin (Austria) with a .957 save percentage and two shutouts on 115 shots five complete games played
IIHF Top Defender: Annika Fazokas (Austria) with four goals and three assists in seven games,
IIHF Top Forward: Estelle Duvin (France) with four goals and five assists in five games
The division 1A tournament was close, with only one “blowout” game (France’s 8-3 victory against the Netherlands to open the tournament) and every team getting a point.
Austria: Defense wins championships! Opponents averaged only 23 shots a game against Austria, in part thanks to the great team defense led by Annika Fazokas and Antonia Matzka. Familiar faces Anna Meixner, Theresa Schafzahl, and Anja Trummer led the way offensively, but newcomer Emma Lintner also had a major impact with three goals and an assist to help add depth to the forward group. Lintner is just 16 years old and made her senior team debut at the Olympic Qualifiers, getting the promotion after a breakout year where she went abroad to play in Canada. Like many teams in the 7-13 range of the IIHF rankings, the question for Austria is about the depth after the starting five, and Lintner provides Austria with a partial answer.
Denmark: After spending a few years directionless, Denmark is starting to find their way again. Their promotion can mainly be attributed to star goaltending Emma-Sofie Nordstrom, who posted a .945 save percentage despite facing the second most shots in the tournament at 139. Scoring is still a problem for Denmark, but they are starting to see Frederikke Foss and Nikita Bergmann translate their U18 success to the senior team level, both having two goals this tournament. The sudden retirement of Amalie Andersen has left an already thin blue line with even less depth, but the two-way capabilities of veteran forwards like Nicoline Jensen and Silke Lave Glud helped ease some of the work load for the defense corps. Between winning silver at this tournament and a respectable showing at the Olympic Qualifiers, Denmark can feel good about putting together two of it’s best tournaments in a while, but will need to improve their defense to keep moving up the rankings.
Slovakia: Slovakia’s forward group had a better showing than they did at the Olympic Qualifiers, with Lucia Haluskova showing off her skills as a play making forward, having her best ever world championship performance with one goal and five assists. Still, none of their forwards were able to take over a game the way Meixner did for Austria or Glud did for Denmark. Players like Lopušanová and Tóthová still a few years out from taking on that role. They were middle of the pack in basically every team stat, which accurately portrays where this team is at: not terrible or great at one particular thing.
France: When Duvin, Aurard, and Rozier are on the ice together, you watch them and go “man, this team is going to win the whole thing.” Unfortunately, they can only play about a third of the hockey game. That is not to say France doesn’t have other good players - Baudrit, Leclerc, De Serres, and Villiot all had great tournaments. Rather that the first line for France is just that good that you can easily see them winning minutes against the likes of Germany and Japan, but the rest of the roster is much farther behind. France’s goaltending is in a weird place, it was a major problem at the Olympic Qualfiiers, causing them to call upon USports alumni Alice Philbert who has never played a tournament with France at any level before. Considering the circumstances, she did pretty good, posting an even .900 save percentage, but not the level of dominance needed to medal when going up against the likes of Luggin and Nordstrom. Still, Philbert is likely the best option for France going forward, and she may do better with more time to practice with the team. Special teams played a major part in France’s losses, with only two power play goals for and six power play goals against.
China: China was the worst team in this tournament offensively, but two things saved them from relegation - the magic of playing in front of a home crowd, and Jiahui (Grace) Zhan continuing to be one of the best goaltenders in the international stage right now. Zhan faced 187 shots, about 37 shots a game and 48 shots more than anyone else, and finished with a .941 save percentage and only 11 goal against. China only scored four goals the entire tournament, everyone else scored at least ten. Two of those goals came during their crucial win against the Netherlands, where veteran player Mengying Zhang scored the game winner in the third. The game against the Netherlands was the only game in which they outshot their opponent.
Netherlands: The Netherlands has been able to qualify for D1A due to having several SDHL caliber players in Kayleigh Hamers, Savine Weilenga, and Bieke Van Ness, but with every other team getting better, those players can’t carry them like they used to. Aimée Seppenwolde and Esther de Jong were able to inject some life in this team, but with the majority of the younger players on the roster still needing to rely on a weak domestic league program for development, the gap in conditioning and reps against other top talent is evident.
Division IB
Promoted: Italy
Relegated: Slovenia
Final standings: 1) Italy 2) Latvia 3) Great Britain 4) Kazakhstan 5) South Korea 6) Slovenia
IIHF Top Goalkeeper: Kristiāna Apsīte (Latvia) with a .946 save percentage in five games, 194 saves on 205 shots, and one shutout
IIHF Top Defender: Nadia Mattivi (Italy) with four assists in five games
IIHF Top Forward: Matilde Fantin (Italy) with five goals and five assists in five games
Italy: There is nothing more important on the international stage than having an elite level goaltender, and Martina Fedel proved that she is more than capable of filling that role for Italy. The University of Guelph goaltender from Trento started in four of Italy’s five games, and was part of Italy not conceding a single goal all tournament. Fedel, and backup goaltender Margherita Ostoni, had the lightest workload this tournament with only 72 shots against across the five games, but going 240 minutes without giving up a goal is still an impressive achievement. Italy’s core of Matilde Fantin, Nadia Mattivi, Aurora Abatangelo, and Manuela Heidenberger continued to dominate offensively, with the help of several new passport players that Italy has brought into the fold in preparation for the 2026 Olympic. Kristen Guerrero, Kristin Della Rovere, Olivia Christina De Ciantis, and Kayla Tutino made their national team debut this tournament, with Guerrero and Della Rovere being major contributors.
Latvia: Two things worked well for Latvia - a 17.02% shooting percentage and Kristiāna Apsīte going God mode. Latvia only had 141 shots on goal, the second lowest in the tournament, but had the second most goals with 24. In Latvia’s 3-1 victory over South Korea, they were outshot 48-17. In their 3-0 win against Britain, they were outshot 56-21. They got offense from their long term core of Miljone, Yip-Chuck, Rulle, and Silajane, but the addition of 17-year-old Hanna Strause has helped add some extra depth to this offense. Still, no one came close to having as dominant of a performance as Apsīte did, who would finish with a .946 save percentage after facing a total of 194 shots on goal, or roughly 39 shots a game. Between her consistently stellar national team play and her time with the DEC Salzburg Eagles, Apsīte has proved that a high workload and less than stellar defense does not impact her performance. SDHL/NDHL and PFWL teams need to be hitting her up.
Great Britain: Britain is another team that’s sum is greater than it’s parts, with no stand out superstar but enough great team play to put together a defensively sound tournament and stay in games. Offense is their weakest point, where they do have the privilege of a balanced lineup that saw ten different players record a goal, but only two players (Ruby Newlands and Chamonix Jackson) recorded more than one goal all tournament. Of the twelve goals that were scored, eight came against Slovenia. They don’t have a star offensive player even at this level, but the 18-year-old Ruby Newlands is their best chance at developing one after performing well the U18 levels. Despite the lack of offense, they only conceded 12 goals all tournament, in part thanks to veteran goaltender Nicole Jackson, who was solid as usual with a .922 save percentage in four games played. Britain’s most competitive win was their 2-0 victory against Kazakhstan, where Chamonix Jackson scored the insurance goal and three shots - her first showing on the international stage joining the NCAA DIII league.
Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan had a strong start to the tournament, winning 4-2 over South Korea and keeping the game against the dominant Italian team to a close 2-0 loss. They would run out of steam after that, getting shut out again when facing Britain and losing 7-3 to Latvia before finally getting some reprieve when they faced Slovenia and notched their second win. Promoted last year from Division II Group A but having spent most of their program history in this division, they showed progress from last year but struggled with overall consistency. Yekaterina Kutsenko led the team in points now for the second year in a row, the 23-year-old a staple in Kazakhstan’s top six.
South Korea: South Korea was the anti-Latvia this tournament: their goaltending was their biggest problem, and they also had an 6.98 shooting percentage despite putting up the second most shots. 16-year-old Se Won Ahn was the goaltender for most of the tournament, and even in the lower divisions, it’s always going to be a tough time putting someone so young in net. Se Won Ahn had a great U18 tournament this year and South Korea believes she will be the goaltender of their future, but this is the present, and South Korea had a collective save percentage of .832 on 148 shots (the third fewest allowed in the tournament.) On offense, one player who was not cursed was Eun Ji Lee, who had three goals and three assists. Lee had the game winning goal against Britain, as well as a goal in each of their losses to Kazakhstan and Latvia. Taeyeon Kim helped on the blue line with two goals and the second most shots recorded in the tournament with 27. Overall, South Korea looked more balanced this year and had a better process when it came to their skaters, but will need to improve in net and get some better puck luck to finish higher.
Slovenia: Pia Dukarič retired after graduating from Yale and was no longer there to make 65 saves a game for Slovenia, causing a complete and utter collapse. Somehow, despite Slovenia having the puck for what felt like a cumulative two minutes across five games, Sara Confidenti managed to score four goals, which accounted for half of the goals that Slovenia scored the entire tournament. However, Confidenti and her fellow forward Pia Pren are the only positives you can point to in this tournament, and Slovenia’s dependence on Dukarič got exposed as they finished with a -38 goal differential.
Division IIA
Promoted: Spain
Relegated: Mexico
Final standings: 1) Spain 2) Poland 3) Iceland 4) Taiwan 5) DPRK 6) Mexico
IIHF Top Goalkeeper: Andrea Bachmann (Iceland) with a .954 save percentage
IIHF Top Defender: Indira Bosch (Spain) with 4 goals and 2 assists
IIHF Top Forward: Karolina Późniewska (Poland) with five goals and five assists, reached the 100 goal milestone for the Polish national team and became one of four players to have 100 career points at IIHF Worlds events
Spain: What started with a heartbreaking loss in overtime to Iceland ended with a gold medal that’s been a long time coming for Spain. Claudia Castellanos, who will become the first player born in Spain to play division one women’s hockey this Fall when she joins Lindenwood, bounced back after a quiet Olympic qualifier and put up five goals and three assists. Spain’s youth movement continued to lead the way with 20-year-old Haizea Fernández’s eight point performance and Indira Bosch carrying her momentum from a great season in Sweden over to the international stage. Not a single player on Spain’s roster was older than 28 and the average age was 20 years old. One could feel how young this team was at times when there’d be defensive lapses in their own zone or silly penalties taken (they took 24 penalties, the highest of any team.) Still, they looked the part of a gold medal winner more often than not, with fantastic cuts to the net in the offensive zone to generate high danger chances and defenders who weren’t afraid to skate low to get a better shot.
Poland: Someone could argue that Poland were the all around best team in the tournament - but they failed to come up big when it mattered in their final game against Spain. They had the best shot differential (143) and the best goal differential (22), but the beauty of tournament play is that anything can happen in one game. Poland was also hurt by the absence of their star goaltender, Martyna Sass, who sustained a late season injury. Top defender Julia Zielińska had a tough tournament following a weird first season in the NCAA where she only played two games. Zielińska initiated a transfer to Sacred Heart University this offseason, so hopefully a new program may help her get back on track. While Zielińska struggled, Anna Kot continued her momentum from the Olympic Game Qualifiers and was able to take on some of the defensive responsibility.
Iceland: Winning their first ever Bronze at the Division II A level, this tournament was a success for Iceland. Whenever we get to this level, I always like to point out how small these nations and talent pools are: Iceland only has 250 registered female hockey players in the whole country, a country which has a population of 357,603 and three ice rinks. One of those hockey players is Sunna Björgvinsdóttir, the 24-year-old who captained her team to their highest finish ever after making her SDHL debut this year and putting up many years in the NDHL. Björgvinsdóttir has gotten better and better each year, this time around putting up three goals and two assists in five games. Iceland was the only team to beat Spain this tournament after a late goal forced the game to overtime and then a shootout, and never conceded more than two goals in a game thanks to the great play of Andrea Bachmann.
Taiwan: Taiwan had a crazy tournament. They got their first win against DPRK by scoring the game winning goal with just under a minute left, courtesy of Su-Ting Tan, who had never scored a goal at the senior national team tournament before. Then, they almost lose to a much weaker Mexico team before En-Ni Chang ties it up with under a minute left to send the game to overtime. En-Ni Chang also never scored at the senior level, but had two goals and three assists to lead the team this year. On the backend, the usually stellar Ai Chung had a terrible tournament, despite coming off a solid NCAA DIII season and a spectacular Olympic qualifier. Tzu-Ting Hsu (also known as Tiffany Hsu in her time playing in North America) was given back starting duties as a result and put up a .939 save percentage despite the short notice. Conventional? No. Successful? Certainly.
DPRK: The past few years have been weird for North Korea, who made their return to international competition last year after sitting out a few seasons due to Covid, and immediately earned promotion after an intense overtime game against Australia. The rust showed a little more this tournament, but they were able to avoid relegation in a shootout victory over Mexico. They had two close, one-goal losses to Iceland and Taiwan but got demolished by Spain and Poland. Throughout the tournament, DPRK put up a respectable 127 shots, or about 25 a game, but had an abysmal shooting percentage of 3.94%. Some of that can be chalked up to bad luck, but some of it is a symptom of not having faced more competitive goaltending in the past few years. Against Taiwan specifically, they were able to put up 42 shots and get a lot in close range, but could not beat Hsu to get the win. The offense that DPRK was able to piece together were led by young forwards Chung Im Pak and Hyang Jang. Chung Im Pak is only 18 years old and made her international debut last season, and has now led the team in scoring for the second consecutive tournament. Hyang Jang is 23 and played for two years prior to the Covid hiatus, and has come back looking even better, tying Chung Im Pak for team lead in points at three and leading the team in shots with twenty. Both players will be the key pieces for DPRK to build around if they want to climb the rankings again.
Mexico: The best players for Mexico are starting to age, and there hasn’t been a clear answer of who will step up. Claudia Tellez is a legend of Mexican Hockey, but at age 40, she can’t carry the offense like she used to. Monica Renteria, who put up a great .937 save percentage last year, is now 37 years old. Goaltending is the biggest question mark for Mexico, and was the main thing that separated their team from Taiwan. They were able to bring Taiwan to overtime and outshoot them, but Hsu was better, and ultimately handed them the loss that forced them to play for relegation against DPRK. University of Utah goaltender Miranda de Antunano had a strong performance against DPRK, which may indicate promise for next year, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to save them. The defense for Mexico did not make their jobs easy, allowing an average of 38 shots against a game during the tournament. Only Taiwan gave up more shots. Joanna Rojas provided Mexico with two of their seven goals and continues to be their most consistent young producer, but the roster is thin after her.
Division IIB
Promoted: Australia
Relegated: Turkey
Final standings: 1) Australia 2) New Zealand 3) Ukraine 4) Belgium 5) Hong Kong 6) Turkey
IIHF Top Goalkeeper: Sasha King (Australia) with a .952 save percentage and three shutouts
IIHF Top Defender: Jaime Jones (New Zealand) with a goal and seven assists
IIHF Top Forward: Valeria Manchak (Ukraine) with twelve goals and five assists
Australia: After coming so close last year, Australia has finally been promoted! They had faced some hardship heading in to the tournament, being without young star forward Nikki Sharp who led the team in goals last year and put up decent numbers in DIII hockey this year. However, they got reinforcements in Christina Julien, a Canadian native who’s lived in Australia and played in their league for a number of years now. She made a big splash in her Australian national team debut as she led the team with five goals and three assists. Australia was also without goaltender Olivia Last who made her DIII debut this year, but Sasha King stepped up with a huge three shutout performance. Australia was by and away the best team defensively, only letting up 84 shots through their five game. If Australia is able to add Sharp and Last back to the fold and continue to recruit players like Julien, they can probably stick around in division IIA.
New Zealand: Katya Blong, coming off her first year at McGill University, is blossoming into the top forward that New Zealand needs her to be. The twenty-year-old had seven goals and two assists, she was one of the most productive players at the tournament and scored the overtime winner against Ukraine to secure second place for her team. Veteran forward Jasmine Horner-Pascoe rejoined the team after not having appeared in a tournament since pre-Covid, and made her presence known with four goals and an assist. Combined, Horner-Pascoe and Blong were responsible for 11 of New Zealand’s 17 goals this tournament, including a late goal from each against Australia to push it to overtime. Former St. Lawrence University alumni Grace Harrison also made her return to the team for the first time since Covid, and was spectacular in their games against Australia and New Zealand, keeping them in it when their defense couldn’t. The tournament took place in New Zealand, which may explain why we saw the return of players like Harrison and Horner-Pascoe, and it will be interesting to see if the location of the next tournament will affect the roster. If the tournament is in, say, Belgium next year, is that something they’d be able to travel to and participate in? The answer could determine how New Zealand will fair next year trying to earn promotion again.
Ukraine: Third place is a triumph for Ukraine, who was just promoted to division IIB and immediately proved they belonged. They had the best offense of the tournament with 25 goals across five games, led by Valeriia Manchak, who keeps getting better and better in her age 28 season. Manchak, who’s also the head coach of the Purcell Hockey Academy 19U team in Canada, had 12 goals and five assists across five games. Six of those goals came against Hong Kong and another hat trick occurred against Belgium. Ukraine’s young star Daria Tsymyrenko was her partner in crime, with three goals and eleven assists, including two of the goals in their close loss against New Zealand. The starting lineup of Manchak, Telehina, Tsymyrenko, Kyrychenko, and Vedmedenko were arguably the best starting five of the tournament, but the lineup fell off hard after that. The one exception is sixteen-year-old Anastasia Nesterenko, who plays at the Academy Manchak coaches at, and provided some secondary scoring with a goal and an assist and handled herself well in her first senior tournament.
Belgium; The Belgium Women’s National Team have a player to build around in Anke Steeno, who had four goals and three assists, playing a direct role in seven of the team’s eleven total goals. Steeno, Louise Paulissen, and goaltender Charlotte Swinnen have carried this program from the third to the second division and are the main reason they’ve avoided relegation. In Belgium’s 6-2 win against Hong Kong, the defense had allowed 32 shots against including 14 directly net front, but Swinnen stood tall and kept Hong Kong at bay. Steeno scored and had two primary assists in the game against Hong Kong, doing a fantastic job facilitating passes to the middle of the ice for her teammates to capitalize on. Linnore Saunders, who made her national team debut at this tournament at only 15 years old, had major contributions with three assists in the game and had natural chemistry with Paulissen and Steeno. The game against Hong Kong was Belgium’s only win, and winning in regulation saved them from relegation after a disappointing loss to Turkey in OT. The last thing to note is the penalty killing for this team was god awful, allowing five power play goals against, but they solved this by taking the least amount of penalties in the tournament.
Hong Kong: With a very young roster with the average age of 21.95, Hong Kong was able to avoid relegation by beating Turkey in regulation thanks to two goals by 16-year-old Wing Yan Cheung and some good play making by Estelle Ip and Renee Ng. Fun fact about this roster: only two players are over 30, and one of those is 50-year-old Adrienne May Li who has been with this team for every tournament! The defense and goaltending was shaky at times for Hong Kong, but they were able to put up middle of the road offense to keep them in games. They almost managed to beat New Zealand, carrying a 2-1 lead into the final ten minutes of the third period, before collapsing and giving up three goals. Such mistakes are to be expected with the majority of players still finding their groove on the international stage after missing a few years for Covid, and to put up two goals and 36 shots on the second place team and one of the better goaltenders of the tournament is a good sign.
Turkey: Narrowly avoiding relegation the past few tournaments, Turkey is no longer able to hang on. Turkish-Russian player Elis Savas made her national team debut and was one of the top scorers in the entire tournament, leading Turkey in points with three goals and three assists. Erva Su Kanat looked great in goal and was Turkey’s best player for about 90% of the tournament, but unfortunately the 10% where she looked human came in their game against Hong Kong that was Turkey’s best chance of winning and avoiding relegation. Kanat bounced back with a 47 save performance in the final game against New Zealand, almost enough for a miraculous upset, but Turkey fell a goal short of saving themselves. Ultimately, if the team needs to rely on a 17-year-old goaltender to be perfect for the entire tournament in order to avoid relegation, then relegation may be for the best as the program as a whole continues to develop.