Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Women's tournament

2026 Winter Olympics

Tournament details
Host country	Italy
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Dates	5–19 February
Teams	10
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The women's tournament in ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics will take place in Milan, Italy between 11 and 22 February 2026. ^[1] Ten countries qualified for the tournament; six of them did so automatically by virtue of their ranking by the International Ice Hockey Federation, one, Italy, automatically qualified as hosts, while the three others took part in a qualification tournament.

Russia is banned from competing due to the countries' invasion of Ukraine. ^[2]

Venues

PalaItalia Capacity: 16,000	Fiera Milano Capacity: 6,500
Milan	Beijing

Qualified teams

Main article: Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Women's qualification

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies	Qualified
Hosts	—		1	Italy
2024 IIHF World Ranking [a]	20 August 2021 – 14 April 2024	Utica [b]	5	Canada   United States   Finland   Czech Republic   Switzerland
Final qualification tournaments	6 – 9 February 2025	Tomakomai	2	Japan   France [c]
		Gävle	1	Sweden
		Bremerhaven	1	Germany
Total			10

Notes

1. ^a The 2024 IIHF World Ranking comprised the following events: 2021 World Championship, 2022 World Championship, 2022 Winter Olympic Games, 2023 World Championship and 2024 World Championship.
2. ^b Utica was the site of the 2024 IIHF Women's World Championship; at the conclusion of the tournament the direct qualification slots were finalized, however final qualification ranking was not determined until the completion of the Division IA tournament in Klagenfurt on 27 April.
3. ^c According to IIHF president Luc Tardif, though not official, it is expected that the IOC will inform the Russian Olympic Committee that they will not be allowed to participate in Milan-Cortina. ^[3] This means that France replaces them both in the men's and women's tournament, filling the final seed in both.

Format

The ten teams are split into two groups of five teams each, in which they play against each team once. All teams from Group A and the top-three ranked teams from Group B advanc to the quarterfinals. A knockout system will be used after the group stage.

Rosters

Main article: Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Women's team rosters

Match officials

12 referees and ten linesmen were selected for the tournament. ^[4]

Referees		Linesmen
Julia Kainberger Cianna Lieffers Elizabeth Mantha Michelle McKenna Shauna Neary Zuzana Svobodová	Annina Nurmi Ida Henriksson Kelly Cooke Melissa Doyle Samatha Hiller Amanada Tassoni	Alexandra Clarke Laura Gutauskas Justine Todd Erin Zach Kristýna Hájková	Tiina Saarimaki Jessica Lundgren Sarah Buckner Jennifer Cameron Kirsten Welsh

Preliminary round

All times are local (UTC+1). ^[5]

Tiebreak criteria

In each group, teams are ranked according to the following criteria:

1. Number of points (three points for a regulation-time win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout defeat, no points for a regulation-time defeat);
2. In case two teams tied on points, the result of their head-to-head match determines the ranking;
3. In case three or four teams are tied on points, the following criteria apply (if, after applying a criterion, only two teams remained tied, the result of their head-to-head match determined their ranking):
   1. Points obtained in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
   2. Goal differential in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
   3. Number of goals scored in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
   4. If three teams remained tied, result of head-to-head matches between each of the teams concerned and the remaining team in the group (points, goal difference, goals scored);
   5. Place in 2025 IIHF World Ranking.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Canada	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	United States	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Finland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Czechia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Switzerland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 5 February 2025. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: Preliminary round tiebreakers

5 February 2026 (2026-02-05) 16:40 v

United States

v

Czechia

Fiera Milano, Milan

5 February 2026 (2026-02-05) 21:10 v

Finland

v

Canada

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

6 February 2026 (2026-02-06) 14:40 v

Czechia

v

Switzerland

PalaItalia, Milan

---

7 February 2026 (2026-02-07) 16:40 v

United States

v

Finland

Fiera Milano, Milan

7 February 2026 (2026-02-07) 21:10 v

Switzerland

v

Canada

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

8 February 2026 (2026-02-08) 21:10 v

Czechia

v

Finland

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

9 February 2026 (2026-02-09) 20:10 v

Switzerland

v

United States

PalaItalia, Milan

9 February 2026 (2026-02-09) 21:10 v

Canada

v

Czechia

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

10 February 2026 (2026-02-10) 20:10 v

Canada

v

United States

PalaItalia, Milan

10 February 2026 (2026-02-10) 21:10 v

Finland

v

Switzerland

Fiera Milano, Milan

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarterfinals
2	Sweden	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Italy (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 5 February 2025. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: Preliminary round tiebreakers
(H) Host

5 February 2026 (2026-02-05) 12:10 v

Sweden

v

Germany

Fiera Milano, Milan

5 February 2026 (2026-02-05) 14:40 v

Italy

v

France

PalaItalia, Milan

---

6 February 2026 (2026-02-06) 12:10 v

France

v

Japan

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

7 February 2026 (2026-02-07) 12:10 v

Germany

v

Japan

Fiera Milano, Milan

7 February 2026 (2026-02-07) 14:40 v

Sweden

v

Italy

PalaItalia, Milan

---

8 February 2026 (2026-02-08) 16:40 v

France

v

Sweden

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

9 February 2026 (2026-02-09) 12:10 v

Japan

v

Italy

Fiera Milano, Milan

9 February 2026 (2026-02-09) 16:40 v

Germany

v

France

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

10 February 2026 (2026-02-10) 12:10 v

Japan

v

Sweden

Fiera Milano, Milan

10 February 2026 (2026-02-10) 16:40 v

Italy

v

Germany

Fiera Milano, Milan

Playoff round

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Gold medal game
	13 February
					16 February
	13 February
									19 February
	14 February
					16 February
	14 February
									Bronze medal game
									19 February

Quarterfinals

13 February 2026 (2026-02-13) 16:40 v

TBD

v

TBD

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

13 February 2026 (2026-02-13) 21:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

14 February 2026 (2026-02-14) 16:40 v

TBD

v

TBD

Fiera Milano, Milan

---

14 February 2026 (2026-02-14) 21:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

Fiera Milano, Milan

Semifinals

16 February 2026 (2026-02-16) 16:40 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

---

16 February 2026 (2026-02-16) 21:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Bronze medal game

19 February 2026 (2026-02-19) 14:40 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Gold medal game

19 February 2026 (2026-02-19) 19:10 v

TBD

v

TBD

PalaItalia Santa Giulia, Milan

Final ranking

The places five to twelve were ranked by their preliminary round group placement and then points and goal difference.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
1		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Champions
2		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Runners-up
3		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Third place
4		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Fourth place
5		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Eliminated in quarterfinals
6		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Eliminated in preliminary round
10		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 5 February 2025. Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. "Milano Cortina 2026: Complete ice hockey schedule. Register to see your favourite ice hockey stars at the Games". olympics.com. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
2. Kaplan, Emily (4 February 2025). "IIHF extends competition ban for Russia, Belarus". ESPN.com. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
3. "The announcement – Russia banned from the 2026 Olympics (in Swedish)". HockeyNews.SE. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
4. "Selecting Officials to Women's Olympic Winter Games". IIHF. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
5. "Olympic schedule: 58 games, 22 teams, two gold medals". iihf.com. Retrieved 17 June 2025.

External links

• IIHF website