ZURICH – The 13th World Women’s Championship begins today in Zurich and Winterthur, Switzerland, with two games. This is the first time Switzerland has hosted the event. Canada has hosted five times, Finland three, United States two, and one time each for China and Sweden…

The eight teams will play a round-robin series of games within two groups of four nations each. The bottom two go on to play a best-of-three relegation. The top two advance directly to the semi-finals, while the second and third-place teams play a quarter-finals…

China is not here because it was relegated after the 2009 World Women’s but Kazakhstan is here even though it didn’t play in Vancouver because it placed sixth at the WWC in ’09. That event featured nine teams as opposed to eight here in Switzerland…

The tournament was last held this late in the season in 1992 when it went from April 20-26. This year’s gold-medal game will be played at the Hallenstadion in Zurich on April 25th…

The Hallenstadion (capacity just over 10,000) is normally the home to ZSC Lions, a team in the top division of the men’s Swiss national league. FIN-KAZ, 16.00 Winterthur
Finland has appeared in all previous women’s events – four Olympics, 12 World Women’s, three World U18 Women’s…Kazakhstan appeared in the 2002 Olympics and four World Women’s, and has never played at the top level of U18 events…The only previous WW meeting between these nations was in 2009, the Finns winning comfortably, 7-0…In fact, the Kazakhs have never beaten Finland in hockey. The men are 0-0-5 against Finland at WM20 level, 0-0-1 at WM18, 0-0-1 at WM, and 0-0-1 at Olympics (men)…There are 12 players in today’s game for Kazakhstan who were in that 7-0 loss two years ago, including starting goalie Daria Obydennova. The Finns also have their goalie from that game, Maija Hassinen, as well as two players who played a prominent role in that win. Michelle Karvinen had two goals and an assist and Anne Helin had a goal and assist…The Kazaks have three players who have been with the national program since 2001--Lyubov Ibragimova, Olga, Potapova, and Viktoria Sazonova. All have played in five top-level IIHF events…The Finns, meanwhile, can boast having one of the most senior players in the world in Karoliina Rantamaki, the 33-year-old having played every event since 1997.
CAN-SUI, 20.00, Winterthur
History does not favour Switzerland. The teams have played six times in various women’s events, Canada winning all six games by an aggregate of 60-3. This includes one meeting at the 2010 Olympics (10-1 Canada), two games at the WW18 (16-1 and 9-1, the latter in 2011), and three games at the World Women’s (6-0, 10-0, 9-0). The most recent game came in 2007, the last time Canada won WW gold. The first meeting came in 1997. Incredibly, Canada has two players today who were in that game – captain Hayley Wickenheiser and forward Jayna Hefford…Canada’s roster includes four players born in the 1970s, 14 in the 1980s, and three in the 1990s. By comparison, Switzerland’s 21-man roster has not a single player from the 1970s, 12 from the 1980s, and nine from the 1990s…Kathrin Lehmann also made her debut in 1997 and is the most senior member of the team. The 32-year-old goalie Patricia Elsmore-Sautter can boast playing against Wickenheiser in 1994 but she didn’t make the final roster submitted yesterday afternoon. Additionally, the Swiss have six others who have been with the national team since 2004, so inexperience is not a problem. ANDREW PODNIEKS