The Danes Are Coming

No one is putting them alongside women's hockey superpowers such as Canada and the US just yet, but it appears that the next country to emerge with a generation of solid talent might be Denmark based on their recent showing at the 2025 U18 Women’s World Championship Division I Group B tournament. A perfect record at the tournament where they surrendered just two goals in five games should give everyone a reason to keep an eye on the Danes, and I'd expect a number of NCAA scouts to start doing research on Denmark's players.

Denmark finished 5-0 with 15 points to capture gold and earn a spot at the U18 Division 1 Group A tournament in 2026 which is one level back of the U18 Women's World Championship that Canada just won. The location of that tournament has yet to be named, but we already know that Japan will replace Hungary at the tournament next season while Denmark replaces Austria. The other four teams will be Italy, Germany, Norway, and France, so Denamrk will be up against some solid competition after being promoted.

Denmark began the tournament with a 4-0 over China before beating Australia by a 6-0 score, downing Korea by an 8-2 score, stopping host Poland with a 5-0 win, and finishing the tournament with a 4-0 exclamation point over Spain. The two goals that Denmark surrendered to Korea came after Denmark had built a 7-0 lead through 43 minutes of play before Hyeonjeong Jang broke Mila Petersen's shutout. Anja Poulson played the other four games without surrendering a goal, so the two netminders for Denmark were incredible throughout the tournament.

Of the seven players with six-or-more points, Denmark had four of them, including tournament leading scorer Nikita Bergmann who finished the five-game event with five goals and eight assists. The Korea game was a bit of a breakout for Alma Madsen-Mygdal who recorded a hat trick and an assist in the 8-2 win while Olivia Ranum had an excellent tournament with four goals and three assists. Klara Holm was the top-scoring defender as she recorded one goal and five assists, so Denmark had the highest-scoring forward and defender and the top goalie. Those are pretty solid honours to boast!

Teresa Christensen, who had two goals and three assists, plays in Canada as she attends the Ontario Hockey Academy in Cornwall, Ontario where she's having a monster season with the OHA Mavericks prep team. She currently has 16 goals and 14 assists in 39 games for OHA where she's fifth in team scoring at age 15! It might be worth keeping an eye on her game because she'll be back over the next couple of year to help Denmark move up the U18 ranks on the international stage. Clearly, Denmark is producing talent.

If I were a U SPORTS women's hockey program, these are the countries to whom I'd be talking as the talent shown by some of these players may not land them on NCAA rosters, but they're certainly good enough to qualify for U SPORTS rosters. The elite level women will always be scooped up by NCAA teams because they have the resources to do so, but finding those players who are coming out of emerging countries is where U SPORTS can unearth some gems like Norway's Mathea Fischer was for UBC.

Congratulations to Denmark on their promotion to the second-highest level of U18 women's hockey on the international stage, and my hope is that more programs begin looking at the women playing at the other divisions as potential recruits. There will always be Canadian and American girls who will be recruited, but those international roster spots should be used when it comes to growing the game.

The Danes are coming in international U18 women's hockey, and that's an exciting development when one talks about the growth of game.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!