After an outright cancellation last year, and a frustrating postponement in the spring, the IIHF Women’s World Championship returns today at WinSport Arena at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta.
Ten teams, consisting of a total of 250 players, will play 31 games over the course of the ten-day event to determine a champion.
The ten teams will be split into two different groups.
Group A consists of the top-five-ranked IIHF team, the United States, who won the gold in 2019, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Russia and Switzerland. These five teams will automatically advance to the quarterfinals, so they are only playing for seeding.
Group B will consist of the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary and Japan. The top three teams in this group will advance to the quarterfinals while the other two teams will be eliminated, but not relegated.
The four teams that lose in the quarterfinals will play one another the following day in placement games, with the winner from that bracket claiming fifth place in the tournament and a berth in Group A for next year’s tournament.
Today’s games
Czech Republic vs Denmark 2 p.m.
Canada vs Finland 6 p.m. (NHL Network)
Switzerland vs United States 9:30 p.m. (NHL Network)