If you haven't already read our tournament intro post, you should probably do that first. You'll find format and group information, plus how to watch. Read the Group A preview here.
United States
There are two players on Team USA playing in their third tournament (Maggie Averill and Haley Box) as well as seven more that joined them at last year's tournament (Kylie Amelkovich, Maggie Averill, Haley Box, Jane Daley, Sloane Hartmetz, Maddy Kimbrel, Annabelle Lovell, Christina Scalese, Morgan Stickney and Chyna Taylor). The Americans took silver at the last tournament, but looked a little lackluster in the gold medal game and never really looked like a threat to win it all. They come back this year having won two of three games against a Canada U18 team that had 21 of the 25 women on this tournament's roster playing.
One of the big keys for the Americans is that they have Stickney in net. She played every minute in net last year in Vantaa and set IIHF records for most scorless minutes and for posting three straight shutouts through the opening round games. Several teams are going to be counting on untested goalies in this tournament, so having her is a huge advantage. She turns 18 on the final day of the tournament (January 18) and you can imagine she's been dreaming of a truly golden birthday.
Some big personalities and scoring threats have aged out of the program over the last two seasons and the US will need players like Box and Amelkovich, who are the highest returning scorers from last year, to really step up. Coach Courtney Kennedy seems likely to switch up lines throughout the tournament as she seems how different skill sets match up with opponents. But expect to see Emily Pohl, Talia Hansen and Lindsay Stepnowski together a good bit. They seemed to click in the summer series and then did well again at the top of the line sheet in USA's 4-2 pre-tournament win over Czechia.
Maggie Averill is captain and the anchor on the blue line. She's strong and solid with a long reach and a good eye for when to jump in to the offense - she reminds me of Lee Stecklein in that way. Another defender to watch is Chyna Taylor, who's more in the style of Cayla Barnes or Sophie Jaques in the way she can creep into space offensively and rip a shot.
Czechia
Czechia followed up 2024's surprise silver medal with a bronze in 2025, marking their first back-to-back podium finishes at this level. With the growth of the women's program in their federation, anything other than another medal would be a disappointment for the Czechs. But they'll need to do it with a mostly new squad, including in net. Anna Horáková is the only member of the goalie trio that was on last year's squad, but she did not see playing time.
Eight players on this team are currently playing at North American prep schools and four of them - Julie Jebousková (Maine), Tereza Gildainová (Cornell), Adéla Pánková (Northeastern) and Kateřina Pěnčíková (RIT) are already committed to NCAA schools. Jebousková was second on last year's team with five points and her team is expecting her to play an even bigger role.
Overall they need to focus on consistency and their ability to close out a game. I'd like to see better overall conditioning, a bit more mental focus and to not see a drop off from this group either in the final period or a game are as the tournament starts to wind down. They're the top European team until someone proves otherwise, but I also don't think their path past Sweden will be an easy one. At times over the past few years they've been able to just exert their skill on lower ranked teams to get themselves by but I think they're going to have to be a more complete team this year and really focus on the details for a full 60 minutes if they're going to compete for a medal.
Finland
If their 11-0 shellacking by Canada in a pre-tournament game on Wednesday is anything to go by, it's going to be a long and furstrating tournament for Finland. The Finns simply haven't shown the program growth at this level that some of their peers have and that appears like it will be brutally obvious this tournament.
They had just one win last tournament, a 4-2 victory over now-relegated Japan where they needed three third-period goals to come from behind. They were shut out by both USA and Czechia and their best game came on the first day when they lost 2-1 in overtime to Sweden. They are now without stalwart goalie Kerttu Kuja-Halkola. But three of their five goal scorers are back and Emmi Loponen has made big improvements in the Auroraliga this year, scoring10 goals and 15 assists thorugh 25 games with ärpät Oulu. Finland will try to build on that experience. They have the bonus of not facing the Americans until their third round-robin game, but they open with Czechia and if they want to put themselves in a position to advance to the medal round, they have to get points from that first outing.
Slovakia
In 2025, Slovakia played in the relegation game where they handily sent Japan down to the D1A tournament and kept themselves at the top level. It's not where they want to be, but I saw massive improvement in the team from 2024 to 2025 and I think we'll continue to see that again here in Sydney. The U18 tournament changed up its format a few years ago and Slovakia was maybe the most affected by it. Instead of dominating their half of the bracket so-to-speak, the unweighted groups really hit them hard. It would be easy to look at last year's seventh place finish and think things hadn't gotten better, but I think that's wrong. Importantly, Slovakia scored in every one of their games in Vantaa, including against both the US and Canada and doubled the number of goals they scored over the 2024 tournament. It's another young team, with six players born in 2010 or 2011. However they do have five players at North American prep schools and are returning goalies Mariana Sumegová and Zuzana Tomečková
The new(ish) tournament format means playing in faster games and after being a bit shell-shocked by that in Zug, Slovakia looked much better in 2025. The emergence of another reliable goal scorer in Gabriela Lačná also helped. She has aged out, but phenom Nela Lopušanová remains and Slovakia desperately needs another player or two to meet her level and provide some depth. I mean, Nela seems to be able to score even though everyone in the rink knows she's getting the puck, but this team becomes much more dynamic when they have more options.
Nela needs just seven points to rewrite the U18 Women's World Championships record books and tie Kendall Coyne Schofield for most career points in this tournament. Six goals would tie her with Coyne Schofield for career goals, as well. She became the first player to win two tournament MVP titles in 2025 after taking the title in 2023.
