Europe's top teams - Czechia, Finland, Switzerland, and Germany - will come together for a Five Nations tournament in mid-December.
While Canada and USA play their Rivalry Series games this December, five of Europe's top teams - Czechia, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany will face off from December 13-17 in Falun, Sweden.
"It is very positive that we have managed to get a 5-nation tournament with such a strong starting field at home," Ulf Lundberg, Sweden's head coach said in a translated interview. "For us, this tournament will be an important starting point before the World Championship in the spring and the first time since the national series starts that we face the Czech Republic, Finland and Germany. In this way, it will be a good gauge of our status before the second half of the season."
Czechia has dominated in recent European Hockey Tour competitions, dominating in Finland and Germany earlier this year.
December's roster for Czechia will include many of the nation's top players, including their contingent of PWHL players, who will have only days prior completed a five-day preseason camp in Utica, New York. In net, the return of Klára Peslarová is welcomed for Czechia. She's one of the top netminders on the planet, and looks healed and in peak shape following an injury that kept her out of most of last season. On the blueline, PWHLers Dominika Lásková and Aneta Tejralová, along with current SDHL standouts Sára Čajanová, Daniela Pejšová, along with Andrea Trnková, who is off to a spectacular start with RPI in the NCAA.
Up front, Czechia's offense will be driven by PWHL players Tereza Vanišová, Kateřina Mrázová, and Denisa Křížová, Naisten Liiga leading scorer Michaela Pejzlová, and NCAA standouts Natálie Mlýnková and Klára Hymlárová.
Sweden will remain without star Hanna Olsson who suffered a season ending injury earlier this season at the hands of Finland's Petra Nieminen.
After missing the first half of the season with an injury of her own, Elisa Holopainen will likely be back in a Team Finland jersey this time around, which will make the competition between Finland and Czechia even more intense.