In August 2024, Finland, Sweden, Czechia, and Switzerland signed a four-season agreement for the Women’s Euro Hockey Tour (WEHT). The tournament has existed in various forms and formats, but in 2024 the commitment was made to put a focus on this tour, setting standards for arenas and marketing to really help push visibility for the women's game.
Each of the four countries hosts a stop on the tour. Germany will join the tour at times and Sweden will not play in the final leg due to them hosting Olympic qualifying at the same time. The United States and Canada are sending developmental squads to Finland for the December stop and this is what is being called the Six Nations Tournament that starts this week.
Part of the agreement the four European countries signed in August is a commitment for the December stop on the WEHT to feature Canada and the United States annually through 2028, aside from the 2026 Olympic year.
While individual national team players from the four main WEHT countries play professional hockey at a high level in North America and Sweden, overall these teams do not have the same development opportunities as the US and Canada. This tournament provides more competition each year which can help drive growth and close the gap. The 2024 commitment is also focused on fan engagement that can hopefully lead to youth enrollment. For some of these countries, there is a lack of depth beyond the senior and U18 national team rosters (which often have overlap). Growing the game is limited by the small size of the pool of female players.
The first stop was in August in Switzerland. Czechia took the top spot, scoring seven points in three games with two wins (over Finland and Sweden) and an overtime loss to Switzerland. Sweden was second with wins over Finland and Switzerland and the loss to Czechia. Finland had a win and two losses while Switzerland had the overtime win over Czechia and two losses. Finland's Viivi Vainikka led that tournament with 5 points (3g, 2a).
The second stop was in Sweden in early November. Czechia once again took the top spot, this time with eight points on two wins (over Finland and Switzerland) and an overtime win over Sweden. Finland placed second with two wins (Sweden, Switzerland) and the loss to Czechia. Sweden took third with a single win over Switzerland and two losses while Switzerland finished fourth with three losses. Finland's Ronja Savolainen led all scorers with four points from four assists.
This Six Nations Tournament is the third of four stops and is being hosted in Tampere, Finland. The teams have been separated into two groups. Group A is the United States, Finland and Switzerland. Group B is Canada, Czechia and Sweden. Each team will play a round robin within their own group to determine standings and then the equivalent seeds from each group will play each other to determine placement - A1 vs. B1, A2 vs. B2, A3 vs. B3.
The timing of the first two stops on the tour meant that several prominent senior national team players took part, but since the PWHL season has started, many of those players are now unavailable.
Czechia announced their roster back in mid-November. In that announcement they said several players were not named because of their PWHL commitments. Beyond those players, that initial announcement included PWHL players Klára Peslarová, Denisa Křížová, Klara Hymlárová and Noemi Neubauerová on it. They've since announced those four players are unavailable and have named replacements. Finland and Sweden announced their rosters after PWHL rosters were announced and they do not include PWHL players like Susanna Tapani, Lina Ljungblom and Ronja Savolainen, who'd competed in earlier stops.
While the initial agreement was for the US and Canada to send developmental squads, the exclusion of PWHL players from the other rosters has made this a larger opportunity among all the countries for some players who either haven't cracked the senior team roster or maybe have gotten limited playing time to play in front of their respective senior national team coaches.
It is unclear if these games will be available to watch outside of Finland. I'll post update this post with any links that I find.
Update: This appears to be a useable feed. I have used it without issue this morning, but cannot guarantee the safety of it. Make smart online choices and use with caution.
tvkaista.org/tv5/suora
(Photo: Nicole Haase)
