Women’s Worlds schedule set
by Martin Merk|26 JUL 2021
Canada’s Brianne Jenner and Finland’s Riikka Sallinen at a face-off during the last IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship. The teams will meet again on the opening day in Calgary.
photo: Andre Ringuette / HHOF-IIHF Images
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The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has released the game schedule of the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, following close discussions with host Hockey Canada and the participating teams.

Following the initial cancellation of the event that was scheduled to play in the spring in Halifax and Truro, the Women’s Worlds will take place from 20 to 31 August 2021 in Calgary as previously announced. It will be the first time the tournament will come to the province of Alberta and the eighth time the Women’s Worlds will be staged in Canada.

All 31 games will be played at WinSport Arena at Canada Olympic Park. The main arena will be used for both groups as well as all final round and placement games, while a second ice sheet will be used for practices only.

Click here for the full game schedule.

During the preliminary round three games per day will be played on most days with the time slots 12:00 / 16:00 / 19:30 local time (MDT). The Group B game between the Czech Republic and Denmark will make the start on 20 August at noon while host Canada will play its first game against Finland at 16:00. Defending champion USA will play Switzerland in the evening game.

The preliminary round will be played until 26 August with a classic USA-Canada rivalry on the last day followed by a day off.

As in the previous years the Women’s Worlds will be played in two tiered groups with the top-five teams USA, Canada, Finland, ROC and Switzerland seeded in Group A.

Japan, the Czech Republic, Germany and the two promoted teams Denmark and Hungary will play in Group B. The quarter-finals on 28 August will consist of the five Group A teams and the top-three Group B teams.

Following the quarter-finals, the winners will move to the semi-finals played on 30 August followed by the medal games on 31 August.

The four quarter-final losers will play placement games in a knockout format to determine fifth place and a Group A berth in the next Women’s Worlds. There will be no relegated teams this year.

The work on the health and safety protocols with the various authorities is going on and information about potentially having spectators will be known at a later stage.

The teams will arrive in Calgary on 10 August and will immediately enter quarantine before resuming practices and possible pre-tournament games before the puck drops on 20 August.