While girls hockey is being celebrated throughout the months of October and November all over Canada, the International Ice Hockey Federation officially designated the weekend of Oct. 11-13 as World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend around the globe for the 13^th time. And as usual, the response was off the charts, with thousands of young girls and women celebrating the sport or trying it for the first time in more than 30 countries.

In addition to celebrating World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend as part of our MHR Weekend Preview, we also highlighted one of the top North American girls tournaments of the fall. Play began at the Canadian Crown U18 Prep Tournament Friday, Oct. 11, and continued through Monday, Oct. 14.

This year’s Canadian Crown U18 Prep Tournament featured 12 teams competing in four three-team pools. Each team played three pool-play games Friday and Saturday followed by playoffs on Sunday and Monday. The 2024 tournament field included two of the current top 10 U18 girls teams in Canada, according to the Week 3 MHR rankings, and four of the nation’s top 30.

The tournament was hosted by the Northern Alberta Xtreme at GFL Twin Arena in Devon, Alberta. Games were played there at both the Shayne Zender Memorial Rink and the Dale Fisher Rink and can be viewed via webstream at HNLive.  

Highlights from World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend events held around the world can be found by CLICKING HERE.

As always is the case when it comes to hockey, Canada is leading the charge for World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend events. According to the Hockey Canada website, “The goal of World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend is to have events from coast to coast to coast that recruit, retain and engage players, coaches, officials and fans – old and new. It aims to celebrate and grow the game while uniting Canadians through grassroots programming led by girls hockey associations, minor hockey associations and communities.”

Hockey Canada recommended that local hockey associations host their girls hockey weekend at a time that is convenient for their members during the months of October and November and that is likely to generate the most interest and participation. More than 50,000 Canadians have celebrated World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend since 2019 at better than 500 events that have been held from coast to coast. From games and skills sessions to classroom activities and road hockey, participants of all ages have helped to continue the growth of women’s hockey throughout Canada.

“We have 67 confirmed events with over 12,000 participants expected,” Katie Greenway, the Manager of Women & Girls Hockey at Hockey Canada, told the IIHF.

CLICK HERE for a list of the events being held in Canada to celebrate International Girls Ice Hockey Weekend in 2024.

In the United States, USA Hockey encouraged rinks and associations around the country to participate in Girls Ice Hockey Weekend activities. Associations, clubs and rinks around the U.S. were abler to register their Girls Growth Initiatives to earn credit towards the USA Hockey Hat Trick Growth Challenge and be eligible for giveaways.

USA Hockey provided ideas and resources to enhance an organization’s Girls Ice Hockey Weekend experience and to promote growth in participation at rinks around the country. Players and associations participating in the festivities were encouraged to engage and document their experiences via social media. Participants were encouraged to post photos of their favorite women’s players, photos of themselves playing hockey, a favorite USA Hockey memory or to tag a friend and ask her to try the sport with them. Some of those tagging @USAHockey on their social-media posts were featured online by USA Hockey.

Participating associations and rinks also were encouraged to host season kick-off parties as well as Try Hockey for Free and Bring a Friend to Skate events.

You can take a look back at posts, photos, videos and other documentation of World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend events and activities in the U.S. on Twitter/X at the @USAHockey account or by performing a search using the hashtag #WGIHW.

It wasn’t that long ago, 24 years in fact, that the first IIHF Women’s World Championship was held. That tournament, hosted in Ottawa, Ontario, featured eight teams and was dominated by Canada and United States. Canada and the U.S. combined to compile and astounding plus-81 goal differential in their six pool play games, winning by an average margin of 13.5 goals per contest.

Fast forward to 2024, and 45 countries sent teams to compete in IIHF World Championship events around the world. At the 2024 WWC held in Utica, N.Y., last April, 10 teams competed in the top division alone, and while the U.S. and Canada perennially still produce the best players and teams in the world, the gap has narrowed considerably.

Perhaps the biggest indicator of how far women’s hockey has come since that first championship event is the Professional Women’s Hockey League. After years of failed attempts at creating a viable professional league for women in North America, the PWHL burst onto the scene in 2024.

The concept of the PWHL was unveiled in June 2023, and just six months later the puck dropped on the league’s inaugural season. Never has a women’s professional league in North America been greeted with such fanfare and anticipation, and the league proved to be far more successful than anyone could have anticipated.

In Year 1 the league drew nearly 400,000 spectators for 72 regular-season dates. Along the way while averaging better than 6,000 fans per contest, the league set six women’s hockey single-game attendance records and formed more than 40 corporate partnerships. In addition, the PWHL generated 238 million social-media impressions, 1.04 million social-media followers and more than 100,000 YouTube followers. League games were viewed via webstream in 88 countries.

According to USA Hockey, there were only about 6,300 girls enrolled in its sanctioned youth hockey programs nationwide in 1990, the year of that first Women’s World Championship. That number reportedly grew to 60,000 by 2010 and more recently eclipsed the 70,000 mark. Similar growth has been seen in Canada, with enrollment in girls and women’s programs exploding from about 8,100 in 1990 to nearly 90,000 in recent years. And according to the IIHF, between 2007 and 2022 the number of registered female players worldwide grew from 153,665 to 229,754.

While girls and women still make up far fewer than half of the hockey participants in North America, the increased attention given to women’s hockey at the international and professional levels has spurred interest and continued growth along with free or inexpensive programs such as learn to skate and learn to play as well as events like World Girls Hockey Weekend.

 

Canadian Crown U18 Prep Tournament

Here is a look at how the teams that competed in the Canadian Crown U18 Prep Tournament Oct. 11-14 fared:

 

Sawmill Leduc Pool

#7 Lloydminster Steelers (3-1-0-1 10 pts)

#9 Regina Rebels (2-2-0-0, 8 pts)

#75 Thompson-Okanagan Lakers (0-4-0-1, 8 pts)

N/A OHA Edmonton (2-1-1-0, 9 pts)

 

Landale Signs Pool

#24 Winnipeg Ice (3-2-0-0, 9 pts)

#52 Swift Current Wildcats (3-1-0-1, 10 pts)

#59 Sherwood Park Reign (2-2-0-1, 7 pts)

N/A North Shore Warriors (1-3-1-0, 4 pts)

 

Devon Dental Associates Pool

#29 Rocky Mountain Raiders (2-2-0-0, 8 pts)

#62 PA Northern Bears (3-0-0-1, 12 pts)

#75 Northern Capitals (1-4-0-0, 3 pts)

N/A Northern Alberta Xtreme (2-2-0-0, 8 pts)

 

Championship Game – October 14

PA Northern Bears 2, Swift Current Wildcats 1

It was a memorable Thanksgiving Day showdown for the Canadian Crown U18 Prep championship, as the Prince Albert Northern Bears claimed the tourney title with a 2-1 shootout victory against the Swift Current Wildcats. Swift Current’s Dior Stringer and the Bears’ Aliya Clarke traded second-period goals for the only tallies during regulation or overtime. Anna Neufeldt picked up the win in goal for Prince Albert by making 35 saves, while Swift Current’s Jordyn Ottenbreit almost equaled that performance with 33 stops of her own. Kara Bergen, Kyla Benjamin and Jade Thompson scored for the Wildcats in their 3-1 semifinal victory against the host Northern Alberta Xtreme. Jersie Andersen scored her second goal of the game at 11:16 of the third period to propel the Bears into the finals with a 3-2 semifinal victory against the Lloydminster Steelers. Marley Dumanski netted the other Prince Albert semifinal goal.

 

CLICK HERE for the U18 Canadian Crown Standings

CLICK HERE for U18 Canadian Crown Results

CLICK HERE for U18 Canadian Crown Statistics