please see this wikipedia article for a full explanation of the tournament format.

The women’s hockey Olympic tournament uses an unbalanced group format, which is different from the men’s tournament format. Honestly, it was not intuitive for me at first glance. Let’s talk about it exists, and why it’s finally being changed going into the 2026 Women’s World Championships.

Group A & Group B with IIHF world rankings

Group A includes the top five IIHF-ranked teams. Group B includes the lower-ranked teams, plus Italy, who automatically qualified as the host nation. For more info on the qualification process you can check out this wikipedia article.

These groups are intentionally unbalanced because Group B teams are assumed to be significantly less competitive than Group A teams during the group stage, so it’s meant to minimize blowouts and foster more competition amongst top-ranked teams.

The tournament uses a round-robin format, meaning every team plays every other team in their group once. Teams earn points using the 3–2–1 system, which is the same one used in the PWHL:

These points determine seeding for the knockout stage.

Using the 2025 Women’s Worlds as an example, all teams from Group A automatically qualify for the knockout round. From Group B, only the top three teams advance.

Group A teams are labeled A1 through A5 based on their points. Group B teams are labeled B1 through B3. Because of the structure, Group B teams are automatically seeded lower. The overall seeding order goes: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, then B1, B2, B3.

This creates two big disadvantages for Group B teams.

First, it’s harder for them to even reach the knockout stage, since only three of them advance, while every Group A team gets through.

Second, once they do qualify, they immediately have to face the strongest Group A teams. Their path is much tougher from the start.

If everyone in Group A automatically makes the knockout round, why does the group stage even matter for them?

It matters because seeding affects how difficult your path to a gold medal will be. If you’re the top seed, you get easier matchups early on.

For example, in 2025, the U.S. was the top seed. They started by playing Germany, the lowest seed, and then faced Czechia (A4) instead of facing Finland (A3). In theory this is a smoother road than starting against a top team.

I watched the U.S. vs. Czechia game on April 19 (USA won 2-1), and as a U.S. fan, it was honestly scary. The U.S. massively outshot Czechia, but Klara Peslarová stood on her head in goal. She made 43 of 45 saves, and Czechia actually had the lead at one point. The U.S. came back and won, but it was close.

In single-elimination tournaments, anything can happen.

People have mixed opinions on this tournament format; some people really like this format, but some people think that a balanced group format is more fair. I personally prefer the balanced group format because it is way more intuitive for fans.

The 2026 World Championships will be shifting to a balanced group format. I made a video explaining the new World Championship format if you are curious!

5 minutes of sudden death 3v3 overtime followed by a 5 round shootout. After 5 shooters have gone, the same shooter can be repeated.

10 minutes of sudden death 3v3 overtime followed by a shootout.

20 minutes of sudden death 3v3 overtime. If nobody scores there will be a 15 minute intermission followed by another 20 minutes of sudden death 3v3 overtime until somebody scores.