Austria's U16 women begin the Euro­pean Cup in Ferlach as hosts!

Five games in six days is a demanding and certainly challenging schedule for the team led by Head Coach Tomáš Kala, who will be supported in the gunsmiths' town by his Assistant Coaches Alessandra Lopez and Lena Wurzer. Lukas Chromy is responsible for goalie coaching.

Austria will face Slovakia in the evening game on Tuesday, followed by France at lunchtime on Wednesday, while the perennial prestige clash against Germany awaits in prime time on Thursday. After a day off, they will take on Poland in the beautiful Rosental Valley late on Saturday afternoon, before facing Hungary at the same time on Sunday in the final game. During the IIHF break in February, the U16 team played a Four Nations Tournament in Zeltweg, suffering a 1:4 defeat against Poland before claiming an excellent 3:2 win over Germany.

The tournament format is new for the 2025 edition. Compared to last year, the Cup will be held in a round-robin format for the first time this year – for the U16 women, the tournament feels like a ‘mini World Championship’ or ‘mini European Championship’, with exactly six teams having entered. As in a World Championship division, the standings after all games will determine the final placings; there will no longer be two groups followed by placement games.

The idea behind the European Cup

The background: in women's ice hockey, there are no U20 programmes as there are in the men's game, only U18. U20 would not make much sense either, as most U20 players are already integrated into senior teams anyway. However, in order to have a second age group, a meeting of those responsible for European women's ice hockey decided in the summer of 2016 to establish the European Cup.

The only leading European nation with no U16 programme at all is Sweden. Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia and, on one occasion, Japan as a guest, have so far participated rather sporadically. Hungary, Germany and Austria have taken part in every Cup to date, while Slovakia has missed only one.

Austria's greatest achievements include a win over Finland in 2019, when they ultimately finished fourth. Last year, the U16 women achieved their best result to date by finishing third in Bratislava.

Martin Kogler, General Manager Women's Ice Hockey, is looking forward to a strong tournament at the attractive HTC Arena in Ferlach and hopes for a good showing from the ÖEHV selection: "Poland are taking part for the first time this year, but they currently have very strong age groups at U16 level and were surprise tournament winners in Zeltweg in February against Norway, Germany and Austria. They will certainly be capable of achieving a great deal in Ferlach too. Otherwise, Hungary, Germany and Slovakia are the favourites. As Austria are playing the Cup at home for the first time this year and are the hosts, we naturally want to compete for the podium places!"

U16 Women's National Ice Hockey Team squad

U16 Women's European Cup 2025

06 May 2025 – 11 May 2025, Ferlach, Austria
Participating countries: Germany, Hungary, France, Slovakia, Austria, Poland

Slovakia vs Austria

Tue, 06 May 2025, 20:00, Ferlach

Austria vs France

Wed, 07 May 2025, 12:30, Ferlach

Austria vs Germany 

Thu, 08 May 2025, 20:00, Ferlach

Austria vs. Poland

Sat, 10 May 2025, 17:45, Ferlach

Hungary vs. Austria

Sun, 11 May 2025, 16:30, Ferlach