USA Gains Upper Hand Against Canada At 2025 Women’s Hockey Worlds

One year out from the 2026 Winter Olympics, a major focus of the 2025 women’s world hockey championship is the opportunity for young players to audition for a spot on their sport’s biggest stage.

But when the top-ranked United States and Canada met for their preliminary-round clash on Sunday, the veterans carried the day.

Defenders Lee Stecklein and Megan Keller delivered the goals for Team USA in its 2-1 win over Team Canada, while Laura Stacey replied for the losing side. All three players have been to multiple Olympics and are already gold medalists — Stecklein and Keller from Pyeongchang in 2018, and Stacey from Beijing in 2022.

Keller’s game-winner was a beauty, as she cut through all five Canadian skaters before flipping the puck past goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens.

Still the top two women’s hockey nations, Canada came into the tournament sitting No. 1 in the IIHF’s world rankings and as the defending gold medalists from the 2024 worlds.

Both teams easily handled their competition in their first two preliminary-round games in Ceske Budejovice. Team USA downed Finland 7-1 and Czechia 4-0 while Canada earned a 5-0 win over Finland and a 4-0 victory over Switzerland.

Now, with one game each remaining in the round robin, the United States holds top spot in Group A with a 3-0-0 record for nine points. Canada sits second with six points, at 2-1-0.

This year, for the final time, the top five teams in the 10-team tournament are slotted into Group A, while the teams ranked sixth through 10th play in Group B. As there has historically been a wide disparity of talent levels across the sport, the goal of this format was to promote better competition and fewer blowout matches.

But parity is improving, so a switch will take place in the 2026 tournament, to be held after the Olympics. At that time, the top 10 teams will be blended in a ‘snake seeding’ format that’s similar to what’s used for the men’s World Junior Championship or World Championship.

Another sign of the game’s global growth is the impressive attendance for the games in Ceske Budejovice, Czechia. After just five days, the tournament has already established a new record for European attendance at 56,025 over 14 games — an average of more than 4,000 fans a game. With sell-outs of 5,869 for all three of the host Czechs’ games and 5,538 in attendance for Canada-USA, the Czech organizers have put themselves within striking distance of the all-time Women’s World attendance record of 119,231 over 20 games in Winnipeg, Canada in 2007. There are 15 games to go.

To say that Czechia loves its hockey is an understatement. Less than a year ago, a new attendance record was set on the men’s side as the host Czechs won gold at the 2024 worlds in Prague and Ostrava.

Here are a few notable new faces who are standing out in the early days of the 2025 tournament:

• Jennifer Gardiner – Canada: Playing on Canada’s top line with her teammates Stacey and Marie-Philip Poulin from the Montreal Victoire, the PWHL rookie has four points in her first three games and was named Canada’s best player in its tournament-opener against Finland.
• Abbey Murphy – USA: The scrappy forward won silver with Team USA at the Beijing Olympics, but has not yet made the jump to the pro ranks. Celebrating her 23rd birthday on Monday, Murphy just completed her fourth season at the University of Minnesota.
• Linnea Johansson – Sweden: On a Swedish team that leads Group B with a 3-0-0 record, the 2022 Olympic vet Johansson leads her team with four points. At 23, Johansson has remained in her homeland to date, playing in the SDHL.
• Lilli Welcke and Luisa Welcke – Germany: Like the NHL’s Daniel and Henrik Sedin, these identical twins seem to share uncanny symmetry. The 22-year-olds, who play at Boston University, lead the German team with three points each through two games in Group B.
• Miyuu Masuhara – Japan: The 23-year-old netminder, who has played exclusively in her home country, has been outstanding for Japan in Group B. She has allowed just four goals on 76 shots over three games for a .950 save percentage.

Canada will wrap up its preliminary-round schedule at the women’s world hockey championship against Czechia on Monday (1 p.m. ET). The United States finishes with Switzerland on Tuesday (10 a.m. ET). The top eight teams will qualify for the playoffs, a single-game knockout format which begins Thursday.