The group stage is done, and we’re looking forward to Thursday’s quarter-final action in Vantaa. But while we’re waiting for the knockout rounds to start, let’s check in with IIHF.com’s U18 Women's Worlds reporters Risto Pakarinen and Andy Potts for some thoughts on how it started and where it’s going.

What were your standout moments in the group stage? 

Risto: There were quite a few! One quick disclaimer: with the North American dominance, it’s sometimes too easy to overlook those teams and take their standout moments for granted. OK, enough rambling. 

The way Japan really made Sweden work for their points was impressive. The Japanese team is disciplined and they really play for each other. In addition, they have Umeka Odaira. who turned 16 just a couple of weeks before the tournament and leads Japan in scoring. Speaking of moments, there was one that must have made the Swedish coach's heart skip a beat when a Japanese shot had already beaten the goalie and a Swedish defender swatted the puck out from mid-air.

When the US and Canada get their offence going, the way they attack in waves and are relentless is impressive. 

Another nice moment that comes to mind is from the stands, from the first Finland game. A father came to the stands with his daughter. They were wearing their local Helsinki team sweaters and sweatshirts. The little girl was giddy to see the Finnish team, and just as the girls skated out on the ice, the father gave his daughter a little squeeze as they shared a hockey moment. Another girl (and her Dad) hooked on hockey!

Andy: OK, I’ll speak up for the North Americans. It is, of course, great to see the rest of the world getting more competitive in women’s hockey. There’s sometimes a tendency to want that catch-up process to go faster, but there’s no sport where you can build a champion team in a single year. The step-by-step, year-on-year progress we’re seeing across the board is encouraging.

But that also means that the USA and Canada are having to work harder to maintain their traditional dominance. So when Morgan Stickney goes an entire group phase without allowing a goal (something no goalie has achieved previously), that shows that the best are getting better as well. Similarly, the way Canada finds ways to unlock stubborn defences and solve some inspired goaltending points to an evolution in the game. We’re not just looking at talented individuals, we’re looking at properly drilled teams. And I think we’re seeing that from all eight nations here, to at least some degree.
 
Which of the QF pairings looks most interesting to you?

Andy: I have a feeling the Finland-Czechia game is the one we’ll be talking about on Friday morning. The Czechs are missing the firepower from last year’s Adela Sapovalivova line – and who wouldn’t? – but they’ve shown enough to suggest they can follow up last year’s silver with some more hardware. Linda Vocetkova has a lot to offer up front, and Daniela Novakova’s goaltending means the Czechs will always be competitive.

But nobody wants to face the host nation in a one-off game. Finland feels like it needs to find a goal-scorer to complete the jigsaw puzzle. In the group stage, things were well-drilled and players stuck to the gameplan admirably. And, when the alarm bells started ringing against Japan, the Finns showed that they could fight that fire. This could be the moment when a new Finnish star is born.

Elsewhere, we’re looking at a Swiss team that is benefitting from an extended run in the top division. This is the best roster we’ve seen from Switzerland for a while, and Sweden will need to show more cohesion than it found against Japan to avoid trouble.

The other two games, though, should be fairly straightforward for the North Americans. While we’ve seen both Canada and the U.S. face some questions in the group stage, we’ve not seen an opponent really threaten them for a full 60 minutes. I’d expect lots of hard work from Slovakia and Japan, but not enough to advance.


Risto: I expect the North American teams to advance, but I do expect both of them having to work for their semifinal berths. The Slovaks rely heavily on Nela Lopusanova’s line, and they’ll get their chances. Slovakia needs some help from the other lines. 

Japan is really going to be tested in their game against Canada, but the team has shown here that they’re not afraid to play. Canada has a physical advantage over Japan, the smallest team in the tournament, but so did the Swedes, and they were lucky to eke out a win. 
 
However, if we want to find an “upset” in the QF, I'd look to the other two games. And remember, I am not predicting anything, I don't have the gift, but I think the Swiss will give Sweden a lot to worry about. Goaltender Amya Iseli has been excellent, their team defence has been solid, and the two top lines with Jael Manetsch, Norina Muller, Laelia Huwyler, Elisa Dalessi, Hannah Estermann, and captain Naemi Herzig create enough chances for the Swiss to score. Having said that, Maja Helge is also an excellent goaltender for Sweden, and Edit Danielsson scored three goals in the three group-stage games. 

Finland v Czechia? It can go either way. The Finns need to find some firepower somewhere if they want to win. (And they do.) I expect the arena to be sold out in that game, and maybe the home crowd will help them. 

It’s early days, but do you have any thoughts about possible MVP candidates?

Risto: It’s impossible to look past Lopusanova. Slovakia scored eight goals in group stage and Lopusanova had – *checks IIHF.com stats* – eight points. 

Now, I do think Bella Fanale is a fantastic leader of the US team. She plays with such poise that some shifts she looks like a 20-year-old in a junior game. Canada’s Stryker Zablocki is another standout, Finnish goaltender Kerttu Kuja-Halkola can carry her team to the semis almost on her own, but she scores too few goals. All joking aside, every team has their MVP candidates: Danielsson, Dalessi, Odaira, Vocetkova. 

Andy: This tournament is challenging the idea of how we select MVPs. Typically, you’d expect the prize to go to a key player from the winning team, or certainly a medal-winning team. But so far, it’s striking how the strongest teams have been exactly that – teams, with the key roles shared among the roster. 

We could argue that the individual players who bring the greatest added value are no longer the brightest stars on stellar rosters, but the standouts from the outsiders. So the likes of Odaira and Lopusanova, who are more likely to play in the relegation round than a medal game, might be the players who add most to their teams. Does that make them tournament MVP material? I guess we'll see how the voting plays out.

It’s only the second time Finland has hosted this event. How are fans in Vantaa enjoying the tournament?

Risto: It's such a hockeyfest. The Finland games are sold out, and the Finns come out to support their team like they support all their hockey teams, with their faces painted, wearing jerseys and waving flags. On Tuesday, the tournament even got some special visitors when players from the 2025 silver-medal winning Finnish World Junior team came to the arena to meet fans and sign autographs (take selfies, that is).

But it’s also nice to see lots of people in the stands in the other games, and the atmosphere is encouraging and supportive, as it mostly is in these international tournaments. It's a cliche, but it does feel like the hockey family coming together. 

Andy: The attendances are really striking. If you go back to 2013, when Finland lasted hosted, not one game attracted a four-figure crowd and on a few occasions there were fewer than 100 people in the building. Barely a decade ago, this tournament could still feel like a "friends and family" gathering rather than a major international event.

Now, as you say, it’s showtime! Sure, we’re not seeing the kind of crowds we’d expect at the Olympics. But the attendances through the group stage here are comparable with the interest in Vantaa’s group stage games at last year’s men's U18 Worlds. We simply weren’t seeing this a decade ago, and it points to a bright future.