2024 Worlds Preview: Czechia

In 2023, Czechia took home their second straight bronze medal at the Women’s World Championship. In January, the Under-18 team took home silver after playing in their first ever championship game. For the senior Lionesses in 2024, nothing but a medal– preferably gold– will do.

Roster

Goaltenders
Klára Peslarová (Brynäs IF, SDHL)
Blanka Škodová (AIK, SDHL)
Viktorie Švejdová (SDE HF, SDHL)

Defenders
Sára Čajanová (Brynäs IF, SDHL)
Klára Jandušíková (Colby College, NCAA III)
Daniela Pejšová (Luleå HF, SDHL)
Tereza Radová (Leksands IF, SDHL)
Klara Seroiszková (HV71, SDHL)
Aneta Tejralová (PWHL Ottawa, PWHL)
Andrea Trnková (Rensselaer Polytechnic In., NCAA)

Forwards
Anežka Čabelová (RINK Hockey Academy Kelowna, CSSHL U18)
Klára Hymlárová (St. Cloud State Univ., NCAA)
Anna Kalová (RoKi, Naisten Liiga)
Denisa Křížová (PWHL Minnesota, PWHL)
Natálie Mlýnková (Univ. of Vermont, NCAA)
Kateřina Mrázová (PWHL Ottawa, PWHL)
Noemi Neubauerová (Brynäs IF, SDHL)
Michaela Pejzlová (HIFK, Naisten Liiga)
Tereza Pištěková (HPK, Naisten Liiga)
Tereza Plosová (Djurgårdens IF, SDHL)
Vendula Přibylová (MoDo Hockey, SDHL)
Adéla Šapovalivová (MoDo Hockey, SDHL)
Tereza Vanišová (PWHL Ottawa, PWHL)

Who to Watch

It’s almost impossible to narrow down which players to watch out for on Team Czechia this year. Multiple players are leading their club teams in scoring and players are coming from stronger leagues than ever. Each line of Czechia’s roster will be a scoring threat.

In the NCAA, forwards Klára Hymlárová and Natálie Mlýnková led their respective teams in scoring. Mlýnková was named the Hockey East conference Player of the Year. Andrea Trnková also led RPI in scoring as a defender in her first NCAA season.

For the second straight season, Michaela Pejzlová earned the scoring title in the Naisten Liiga to go along with her back-to-back championships with HIFK. She finished with 30 goals and 41 assists in 24 games.

In the PWHL, Kateřina Mrázová is fourth in the league and leads PWHL Ottawa with 17 points in 19 games.

In goal, Czechia will welcome the return of longtime starter Klára Peslarová after an injury kept her out of the World Championship last year. Peslarová has had a career year in the SDHL, posting a .935 save percentage in 20 games.

Rising Stars

Three players from the silver medal U18 team will join the senior team in Utica. Adéla Šapovalivová captained the juniors team and will play in her third senior tournament at 17 years old. Tereza Plosová will play with the senior team for the second time, while Anežka Čabelová will make her WWC debut. All three players have committed to Division 1 NCAA programs: University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, and Boston University respectively.

Storyline

As the returning bronze medalists last year, the Czechs wanted to prove that 2022 wasn’t a fluke. With that done, and having established themselves as the European team to beat, the goal will be to defend that title and push for greater heights.

Last year, there were questions in net for Czechia with Klára Peslarová injured and only Blanka Škodová returning as an experienced goaltender at the national level. This year, the team can feel secure with the goaltending squad at their backs.

In their first game of the tournament, Czechia will face Finland, who they have battled through the year in the European Hockey Tour. Czechia won the first two tournaments firmly, but Finland edged them 2-1 in December and earned a resounding 6-1 win in February. The Lionesses will have to learn from those games to come out on top in Utica: every game of the round-robin matters for seeding in the knockout rounds.

After playing Finland, the Czechs will have two days off before facing the US, then a day off before facing Canada. Czechia lost a tune-up game to the US on March 30 by a score of 6-1, though neither team was playing their best lineup. Last year, Czechia lost 6-2 to the US and 5-1 to Canada in the preliminary rounds and lost 9-1 to the US in the semi-final. Since every team from Group A advances to the knockout rounds automatically, these games will be most important for the Lionesses to establish their game against the North American teams and fine-tune their strategy for the later games, as they’ll expect to see at least one of these teams in the medal rounds.

After a day off, Czechia will face Switzerland. Their most recent game against the Swiss in February was a shootout win, and they played well against them earlier in the year, but the teams are well-balanced. Their last game against Switzerland at this tournament was the 2023 bronze medal game, which the Czechs won 3-2. As with the game against the Finns, this game is a must-win for the Czechs to establish good seeding in the knockout rounds.

Schedule

In the United States, all of the WWC games will be broadcast on NHL Network or ESPN+. In Canada, TSN will broadcast all the games. In Czechia, CT Sport will broadcast all the games.

Group Stage Game 1: April 3 vs. Finland, 3 p.m.: TSN 3/4, ESPN+
Group Stage Game 2: April 5 vs. United States, 7 p.m.: TSN 3, NHL Network
Group Stage Game 3: April 7 vs. Canada, 3 p.m.: TSN 3/5, NHL Network
Group Stage Game 4: April 9 vs. Switzerland, 3 p.m.: TSN 1, ESPN+