The 2024 IIHF Women’s U18 World Championship gets underway in Zug, Switzerland on 6 Jan. This year’s tournament boasts a new format. Now the two groups are weighted equally, and no teams can earn a bye to the semi-finals. Instead, the group phase will determine the quarter-final match-ups, and the tournament will proceed from there as a straight knock-out. Let’s take a look at the contenders in Group A, where last year’s champion Canada will start its title defence.
 

Canada

Gold in 2023

A year ago, Canada powered to gold with a 10-0 demolition of Sweden in the final. On the face of it, this was another dominant tournament from the Canadians. However, an OT win over Finland in the semi-final, plus competitive group games against Sweden (4-2) and the USA (3-1) showed that this tournament is increasingly evenly matched.

This year’s roster sees last year’s leading scorer, Caitlin Kraemer, back on the team. She blasted 10 goals in the 2023 tournament, including four goals in that gold-medal game. Ominously, she’s in highly productive form this time around, with 23 (8+15) points in 11 games for the Waterloo Ravens in the OWHL U22s. Meanwhile, there’s growing excitement over Chloe Primerano. At just 16, she’s a dominant defender with Kelowna in the CSSHL U18 league and is poised to make a huge impact on her debut in IIHF play.

Tara Watchorn, an assistant coach in Ostersund last year, steps up to the head coach’s position to curate Canada’s latest bid for gold.

Finland

4^th in 2023

On the face of it, missing a medal last year might look like a disappointment for the Finns. In reality though, Mira Kuisma’s team went agonizingly close to a best-ever performance in this competition. A hard-fought semi-final against eventual champion Canada saw the young Lions grab the lead in the third period before falling after seven minutes of overtime.

Kuisma is back behind the bench this year and, after talking up the way her players grew through the 2023 tournament, she’ll be hoping to claim the medal that eluded the Finns 12 months ago. She’s presiding over a much-changed roster. Just five players – goalie Kerttu Kuja-Halkola, defenders Jennika Ojala, Tuuli Tallinen and Ilona Palin, plus forward Abigail Byskata – are eligible to return from last year.

Finland’s most recent tournament – a four-team event in Chomutov last month – was a struggle. After an OT win over Slovakia, the Finns lost to Czechia and Sweden. However, Kuisma remained upbeat about the team’s development ahead of the Worlds. “There were all kinds of challenges,” she told Leijonat.fi. “But all the time, our play got better during the week. We were able to produce our best performance in the last game, which gives us confidence to go towards the championship.”

Czechia

5^th in 2023

A year ago, injury concerns hampered the Czechs’ bid to win their first WW18 medals since 2014’s bronze. A fifth-placed finish last time, losing to Finland in the QF, was in line with the seeding but came with a sense that there might have been more for Dusan Andrasovsky’s team.

This year’s roster has seen a revamp. There’s still plenty of experience: defender Klaudie Slavickova and forwards Barbora Jurickova, Tereza Plosova and Adela Sapovalivova have been to this tournament twice before, and there are five more who featured in Ostersund last year. But there are many new faces. All three goalies – Aneta Senkova, Sara Sevickova and Daniela Novakova – are rookies at this level, while 14-year-old defender Ellen Jarabkova is set to be one of the youngest players in the competition.

In preparation for the tournament, the Czechs have had some encouraging results – notably a 3-2 victory over Finland on home ice last month.

Germany

Division IA champion in 2023

The Germans are hoping to step off the elevator this year and secure top division survival for the first time since a fourth-place finish in 2012. A year ago, Franziska Busch led her team through an incredibly tight Division IA tournament by the narrowest of margins, winning the decisive game against host nation Italy in a shoot-out after a 0-0 tie through 65 minutes.

Since then, Busch has moved on and two of the key players from her team – goalie Chiara Schultes and star defender Charlott Schaffarth – are now too old. Jeff MacLeod, Canadian-born but involved in German hockey since the 1990s, has taken charge of the women’s program at all levels. But there is still continuity. Of last year’s promotion roster, all 12 eligible players made the long list for 2024. They include Anastasia Gruss, who led Germany in scoring at the tournament in Ritten. And the Germans can point to November’s win over Czechia (3-2) and a 1-0 success at home to Switzerland in December as evidence that they can compete with their immediate rivals in Zug this year.