Team Canada set to defend title at women’s world hockey championship

Team Canada fans who found themselves intensely invested in the 4 Nations Face-Off have another high-stakes hockey tournament to tune into coming up.

Team Canada will look to defend its world champion title at the IIHF Women’s World Championship, taking place April 9-20 in Ceske Budejovice, Czechia.

As with the 4 Nations Face-Off, the tournament will place a spotlight on the longstanding rivalry between Team Canada and Team USA. In the first 23 world championships Canadians have squared off against Americans in the final a total of 22 times. And with 13 world titles to its name, Team Canada has the better track record of coming out on top.

Another similarity to the 4 Nations Face-Off is that the world championship will potentially serve as a preview of a Team Canada roster that could take to the ice at the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games. 

Here’s what you need to know to cheer on Team Canada once again.

Who is playing for Team Canada at the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship?

Team Canada will take a strong team of 14 forwards, eight defenders, and three goaltenders to Ceske Budejovice, offering a preview of the potential Olympic roster. Team Canada is coached by Troy Ryan, who also led the Canadians to Olympic gold at Beijing 2022 and will lead them at the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Games.

Team Canada’s roster includes 18 athletes who represented Canada at the 2024 World Championship (Erin Ambrose, Kristen Campbell, Emily Clark, Ann-Renée Desbiens, Renata Fast, Sarah Fillier, Julia Gosling, Brianne Jenner, Jocelyne Larocque, Emma Maltais, Sarah Nurse, Kristin O’Neill, Marie-Philip Poulin, Danielle Serdachny, Ella Shelton, Natalie Spooner, Laura Stacey, Blayre Turnbull), and five athletes who will make their world championship debut wearing the maple leaf (Jennifer Gardiner, Ève Gascon, Sophie Jaques, Chloe Primerano, Daryl Watts). The roster features 17 Team Canada Olympians.

Team Canada’s roster includes some familiar veteran names. “Captain Clutch” Marie-Philip Poulin—who earned that nickname due to her penchant for scoring game-winning goals in the highest pressure moments, including three different Olympic gold medal games—will make her 13th world championship appearance for Team Canada. Poulin currently leads the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) in goals scored.

Renata Fast, Sarah Fillier and Daryl Watts lead the PWHL in assists, with 15 apiece at the time of writing. Fast will make her seventh world championship appearance for Canada, while Fillier will make her fifth, and Watts her first. Watts is also third overall in points in the PWHL. 

Ann-Renée Desbiens, the top-ranked goalie in the PWHL with a 0.932 save percentage and 1.85 goals against average, is expected to be between the pipes for Team Canada. Desbiens was a hero for Team Canada during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, setting a Canadian Olympic record (for men and women) with 51 saves in a single game.

Sarah Nurse is another familiar name to Team Canada fans, as she broke the points record for a single Olympic tournament while playing for Canada at Beijing 2022.

At only 18 years old, rookie Chloe Primerano is the youngest on the team, while three-time Olympic medallist Jocelyne Larocque is the team’s eldest player at 36.

What is the Olympic significance of the IIHF Women’s World Championship?

The 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship will be the last major international tournament before the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, making it a prime opportunity for nations to test-drive potential Olympic rosters, or see where they might need to make changes. World championship head coach Troy Ryan is set to lead Team Canada at Milano Cortina 2026, providing consistency across the two tournaments.

In particular, the world championship will serve as an opportunity for Team Canada and Team USA to see where their rivalry stands ahead of Milano Cortina 2026. In the seven iterations of the women’s ice hockey at the Olympic Games, Team Canada and Team USA have faced off for the gold medal six times. Team Canada is the defending Olympic champion, having defeated the USA 3-2 in the final at Beijing 2022.

Milano Cortina 2026 is set to be the first women’s Olympic tournament since the launch of the PWHL in 2024, so the impact of the new league on Olympic play is yet to be determined. The vast majority of Team Canada’s players (23 out of 25) play within the PWHL. The other two players are in the NCAA as they pursue post-secondary education.

What is Team Canada’s history at the IIHF Women’s World Championship?

Canada enters the 2025 tournament as the defending champion, having defeated the United States 6-5 in overtime at the 2024 World Championship.

From its 23 appearances at the IIHF Women’s World Championships since the tournament began in 1990, Team Canada has 13 gold medals to its name, along with nine silver and one bronze medal. 

As it does at the Olympic Games, the Canada-USA rivalry runs deep at the IIHF Women’s World Championship. Team Canada has faced Team USA in the championship final 22 times. 

What is the format for the 2025 Women’s World Championship?

Teams will be divided into Group A (Canada, Czechia, Finland, Switzerland, and USA) and Group B (Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway and Sweden). All five teams from Group A and the top three teams from Group B will move on to the playoff round.

The quarterfinal matches will pit A1 vs B3, A2 vs B2, A3 vs B1, A4 vs A5.

The semifinals will match up the top-ranked team against the lowest-ranked semifinalist, while the second- and third-ranked semifinalists play against one another. The winners advance to the championship game, while the losing teams will play for bronze.

The tournament utilizes a three-point system:

• Three points awarded for a win in regulation time
• One point awarded to each team for a tie at the end of regulation time
• An additional point (for a total of two points) is awarded to the winning team after a five-minute overtime period or shootout
• No points are awarded to a team that loses in regulation time

As mentioned above, tied games in the preliminary rounds of the tournament result in a five-minute overtime period, followed by a shootout if no goal is scored during overtime. Overtime periods are played three-on-three (three skaters, plus a goaltender).

In the event of a tie during a playoff game, 10 minutes of overtime will be played before a shootout. In the gold medal game, 20 minute periods of overtime will be played until the winning goal is scored.

During a shootout, five players from each team will alternate taking shots. If the game remains tied after all ten players have shot, the shootout will continue with a tie-break shot by one player on each team. It can be the same or new players who take the tie-break shots.

What is Team Canada’s schedule at the IIHF Women’s World Championship?

Team Canada will have a pre-tournament camp in Tabor, Czechia ahead of the preliminary round, which begins on April 10 for the Canadians.

Preliminary round games:

• Thursday, April 10, 1:00pm ET Canada vs Finland
• Friday, April 11, 7:00pm ET Canada vs Switzerland
• Sunday, April 13, 1:00pm ET Canada vs USA
• Monday, April 14, 1:00pm ET Canada vs Czechia

Quarterfinal games will take place on Thursday, April 17, followed by semifinals on Saturday, April 19. The medal matches will be played on Sunday, April 20.

Fans can tune in to watch games on TSN.

Team Canada 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship Roster

Forwards:

Laura Stacey
Sarah Fillier
Brianne Jenner
Sarah Nurse
Emily Clark
Emma Maltais
Marie-Philip Poulin
Blayre Turnbull
Kristin O’Neill
Danielle Serdachny
Jennifer Gardiner
Daryl Watts
Julia Gosling
Natalie Spooner

Defence:

Sophie Jaques
Jocelyne Larocque
Renata Fast
Ella Shelton
Chloe Primerano
Erin Ambrose
Micah Zandee-Hart
Claire Thompson

Goaltenders:

Kristen Campbell
Ann-Renée Desbiens
Ève Gascon