Six University of Maine women’s ice hockey players are participating this month in three International Ice Hockey Federation championship tournaments.
Junior center Tereza Vanisova, junior winger Vendula Pribylova and sophomore defenseman Anna Zikova are all playing for the Czech Republic, and sophomore defenseman Daria Tereshkina is playing for Russia at the 10-team IIHF World Championships that began Wednesday in Espoo, Finland.
Freshman winger Liga Miljone will compete for Latvia in the Division I Group B World Championships April 6-12 in Beijing, China. The other teams are China, Poland, the Netherlands, Korea and Kazakhstan.
Sophomore winger Michelle Weis will play for Denmark in the IIHF Division I Group A championships April 7-13 in Budapest, Hungary, against Slovakia, Italy, Austria, Norway and Hungary.
Former UMaine standout and associate men’s head hockey coach Bob Corkum is the head coach of the United States women’s national team that is seeking its fifth consecutive championship. Corkum, a former assistant head coach with the NHL’s New York Islanders, is in his first full season at the helm of the women’s team.
The United States is in Group A with Russia, Finland, Switzerland and Canada, while the Czech Republic is in Group B with Sweden, Germany, Japan and France.
The World Championships in Finland will feature round robin play followed by a single-elimination format to determine the gold, silver and bronze medal winners.
The UMaine women (14-15-5) had a disappointing 2018-19 season, finishing ninth in Hockey East and failing to make the league playoffs (7-15-5). During 2017-18, the Black Bears won a Hockey East playoff series for the first time in program history and reached the league semifinals.
Vanisova led the Black Bears with 17 goals and posted seven assists in 31 games. She was the No. 2 point-getter and had the team’s best plus-minus at plus-13.
Vanisova, a former Hockey East Co-Rookie of the Year, earned a berth on the All-Hockey East second team the previous season. The former Czech Republic Female Hockey Player of the Year is just two points shy of the 100-point plateau at UMaine as she has 49 goals and 49 assists in 96 career games.
Pribylova registered seven goals and 11 assists in 31 games and was a plus-12. She now has 17 goals and 32 assists in 96 career games.
Zikova, who was chosen to the Hockey East All-Rookie team two years ago, had four goals and eight assists in 28 games. She now has 6-19-25 in 63 career games.
Tereshkina is coming off a season in which she tallied four goals and seven assists in 32 games to give her 9 & 15 in 69 games during two seasons.
Weis had 4 & 7 in 28 games and has 13 & 19 in 63 games over her first two seasons and Miljone’s three goals and nine assists in 27 games made her the team’s second-leading point-getter among freshmen behind Celine Tedenby’s team-leading 26 points (12 & 14).
UMaine will return nine of its top 10 scorers and all three goalies next season.