IIHF - Spain Debuts in Women’s Worlds Division I, Group B

Spain Debuts in Women’s Worlds Division I, Group B

by Carol SCHRAM|11 APR 2026

Six hockey nations will gather this week for the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, Division I, Group B.

Spain will be hosting and making its Division I debut after earning promotion from Division II, Group A in 2025.

All games will be played at the 1,450-seat Polisportiu arena in Puigcerda, a Catalan city on the Segre River in Northern Spain, near the French border.

Each team will play the other one time in a single round-robin format from 12-18 April. The top team will earn promotion to Division I, Group A, while the last-place team will be relegated to Division II, Group A.

All games will be streamed on IIHF.tv.

Here’s a closer look at the competitors.

Netherlands

After playing in Division I, Group A for the last four years, the Dutch team was relegated to Group B after collecting just one point in five games in Group A play in China in 2025.

Scoring wasn’t a problem. Veteran forwards Bieke van Nes and Savine Wielenga, 22-year-old Aimee Seppenwold of Div. III Wesleyan University and defender Kayleigh Hamers from the SDHL all finished with five points in five games. But the Netherlands team had trouble keeping the puck out of the net, allowing a tournament-high 23 goals.

Latvia

In two years since being promoted from Division II, the Latvians have delivered a pair of second-place finishes. In 2025, their only loss came against the perfect Italians, who were promoted to Group A.

Aside from that 6-0 defeat, Latvia outscored its other four opponents by a margin of 24-6. Liga Miljone finished second in tournament scoring with eight points. Kristiana Apsite, who plays in the Austrian league, was named the tournament’s top goaltender after finishing with a 94.63 save percentage and one shutout.

Great Britain

The British team has been on the rise in its three years since earning promotion to Division I Group B. The squad avoided relegation with a fifth-place finish in 2023, then moved up to fourth in 2024 and into the bronze-medal spot in 2025 with a record of 2-0-1-2.

Great Britain earned a big 8-2 win over since-relegated Slovenia, while shutting out Kazakhstan and taking Korea to overtime.

Though the Brits were shut out by the top two teams, goalkeeper Nicole Jackson gave her team a chance with just four goals allowed against Italy and three against Latvia.

Kazakhstan

Making their return to Division I Group B after a year in Division II, Kazakhstan delivered a solid performance to stay up, beating Korea 4-2 and Slovenia 9-1. The Kazakhs also gave the winning Italians their best battle of the tournament, holding the score to just 2-0.

Goaltender Arina Chshyokolova played every minute for Kazakhstan, finishing with 14 goals allowed and a 91.25 save percentage.

Korea

After earning promotion to Division I Group A in 2024, the Koreans were relegated back to Group B last year. And while they finished in fifth place, a 6-3 win over Slovenia and an overtime victory over Great Britain was more than enough to keep them well ahead of the Slovenians, who were relegated after going winless.

Eunji Lee led the way offensively for the Koreans in 2025, with six points including the overtime winner, on a power play, against the Brits.

Spain

The Spaniards take on their hosting duties as they join Division I Group B for the first time in their program’s history.

Spain had moved up from Division II Group B to Group A in 2019, and earned promotion again last year after posting a 4-1 record, surprising the hosts from Poland with a 4-2 win in the tournament’s deciding game.

At just 20, forward Haizea Fernandez, who plays in Hungary during the season, was the top scorer on the young Spanish team, with eight points in five games. Puigcerda’s own Carolina Moreno, now 24, finished as the tournament’s top goaltender, allowing just four goals in 217:31 of action for a 95.88 save percentage.

Schedule