Some of the best women will go head to head in the 2026 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship! Learn more about this tournament below!
Beginning on Jan. 10 and ending on Jan. 18, a variety of teams will face off to win the World Champion title. The countries of Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and Hungary are in Group A, while Group B includes the United States, Czechia, Slovakia and Finland. These eight teams will meet in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
To start off the tournament, Slovakia will face the USA on Jan. 10 at 10 a.m. (local time), Czechia will face Finland at 1:30 p.m., then Sweden will go against Hungary at 5 p.m. and Switzerland will face Canada at 8:30 p.m. In each group, teams will face one another in order to make their way through the tournament.
Preliminary rounds will go until Jan. 13. Quarterfinals take place on Jan. 15, and the relegation game, along with the semifinal games, will be on Jan. 17. The final games of the tournament will be on Jan. 18. You can see the full schedule here!
Team USA has medaled in 16 out of the last 17 years of this tournament, winning gold in nine of them, silver in seven and bronze in one. There is a lot of representation of New England in the roster: Maggie Averill (Wayland, MA), Lily Bromley (Carlisle, MA), Jane Daley (Medfield, MA), Ava Decourcey (Rockland, MA), Annabelle Lovell (Hingham, MA), Catherine McCooll (Boston, MA), Christina Scalese (West Boylston, MA) and Lindsay Stepnowski (South Glastonbury, CT). Additionally, New England is represented in the staff with Head Coach Courtney Kennedy (Woburn MA) and Assistant Coach Shelly Picard (Taunton, MA).
Good luck, Team USA!