Two former University of Maine women’s hockey players, two current players and an incoming freshman will play for their respective countries in the 2021 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Calgary, Alberta, Aug. 20-31.
Tereza Vanisova, the school’s all-time leading scorer, and Vendula Pribylova graduated from UMaine following the 2019-20 season and will be playing for the Czech Republic, Rahel Enzler will play for Switzerland, Amalie Andersen will represent Denmark, and Mira Seregely will skate for Hungary.
Left winger Enzler was a freshman this past season and was the team’s second leading scorer with nine points on three goals and six assists in 17 games for the Hockey East Tournament semifinalists. Her six assists were top on the team.
Defenseman Andersen, who was a sophomore and is the sister of Carolina Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen, had two assists in 10 games.
Winger Seregely is coming to UMaine from the Ontario Hockey Academy where she had 18 goals and 23 assists in 2019-20. Last season was canceled due to the pandemic.
Center Vanisova is UMaine’s all-time leading career scorer with 63 goals and 66 assists for 129 points in 129 games. She was a second round draft pick of the National Women’s Hockey League’s Boston Pride and was a valuable contributor as Boston won the NWHL’s Isobel Cup this past season. She had a goal and two assists in the Pride’s two playoff wins.
Winger Pribylova played professional hockey in Sweden this past season after notching 21 goals and 39 assists for 60 points in 129 career games at UMaine.
UMaine head coach Richard Reichenbach pointed out that senior defenseman Daria Tereshkina also would have played in the World Championships for Russia but suffered an injury in training camp.
“It’s exciting because they’ve been off for so long now. You don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s hard to predict what their roles are going to be,” Reichenbach said.
The World Championships were supposed to be held in Nova Scotia from May 6-16 but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There wasn’t a tournament in 2020.
Reichenbach said that the tournament will take on added importance because it gives the coaches and general managers a valuable measuring stick with the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, being held in February 2022.
There will be Olympic qualifying games beginning this fall.
Switzerland is currently ranked fifth in the IIHF World Rankings, the Czech Republic is seventh, and Denmark and Hungary are ranked 11th and 12th, respectively.
Reichenbach said sophomore right wing Ida Kuoppala, who has 29 goals and 19 assists in 51 games over two seasons at UMaine, attended some of Finland’s training camps but wasn’t included on the roster for the World Championships. She was an All-Hockey East second team pick this past season.
And Celine Tedenby, who has 24-23-47 in 80 games through three seasons at UMaine and centered the Black Bear’s top line between Enzler and Kuoppala, won’t be playing because Sweden failed to qualify.