Alina Muller discusses being drafted third overall by Boston in the PWHL Draft The Five Nations Cup is underway in Sweden with national teams from Czechia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland competing. EARLY RESULTS FAVOR CZECHIA AND SWEDEN Among the players in attendance are national team players who have signed in the PWHL for this season. Czechia's roster features Ottawa's Aneta Tejralova and Katerina Mrazova, who scored in Czechia's 4-1 tournament opening win over Switzerland. Czechia's lineup also includes Montreal's Dominika Laskova and Tereza Vanisova, and PWHL Minnesota's Denisa Krizova. Emma Soderberg of PWHL Boston is in attendance with Sweden, who dominated Germany in their opening game outshooting them 41-15, although the final score ended only 3-2 in Sweden's favor. Lina Ljungblom, a PWHL Montreal draft pick is also playing. MICHELLE KARVINEN RETURNS TO FINLAND Michelle Karvinen is one of the all-time greatest players to come not only from Finland, but Europe. She's a likely candidate to someday find her name among the honored in the Hockey Hall of Fame. After not playing for Finland's national team in 2023, Karvinen is back in the mix appearing for Finland at the Five Nations Cup. Reuniting Karvinen with the young contingent of Finnish stars who have shown significant promise at recent competitions, could greatly increase the level of parity at the 2024 World Championships. While she's yet to re-join, finding a way to bring back Susanna Tapani would be another immense win for the Finns. SWISS CONTINUE BUILDING PROCESS When Lara Stalder returned to Switzerland this year from a long stint in the SDHL, it was with the goal of helping to build women's hockey in the nation and bring it to a new level. The first task was launching EV Zug, a team playing in Switzerland's second tier. Four members of EV Zug are representing Switzerland at this tournament, but as with many rebuilds, there's pain before the improvement. For Switzerland, it's putting some of their best players in a league they're just too good for. Switzerland needs to find a way to get more top international players into their domestic league, and up the calibre of competition in the SWHL. In recent seasons, they look to be losing some ground as other nations like Sweden close the gap, and Czechia leaps over them. Alina Muller was in uniform for Switzerland in their opening loss to the Czech's for a last hurrah in Europe before joining PWHL Boston for their season. NCAA PLAYERS COMPETING With the first half of the NCAA season, more than a dozen NCAA players were in competition at the Five Nations Cup. Finland had four NCAA players headlined by St. Cloud State's Sanni Ahola and Minnesota's Nelli Laitinen. Other nations with an NCAA presence included Switzerland (three), Czechia (three), and Sweden (five). Perhaps the biggest absence from European international competition remains Kristýna Kaltounková, a senior at Colgate who would immediately be a top line scorer for Czechia. She's chosen not to participate in Czechia's senior national team to date for personal reasons.
