Seven players with University of Maine ties are currently participating in the Women’s International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Championships in Utica, New York.
Tereza Vanisova, UMaine’s all-time leading scorer, and former UMaine teammate Vendula Pribylova are playing for Czechia; former Black Bear Amalie Anderson and incoming UMaine freshman Frederikke Foss are representing Denmark; current Black Bear Rahel Enzler is on the Swiss team and the Welcke twins, Luisa and Lilli, who played at UMaine in 2022-23 before transferring to Boston University, are playing for Germany.
The tournament involves two five-team divisions and each team plays the other four squads in its division in a round-robin format.
Group A contains the United States, Canada, Czechia, Switzerland and Finland. Group B has China, Japan, Sweden, Germany and Denmark.
The five teams in the A pool all qualify for the quarterfinals along with the top three teams from the B division.
The quarterfinals will be held on April 11 and will see the A group winner facing the third-place team in the B division; the second-place teams in each squaring off; the third place team in A taking on the top finisher in B and the fourth and fifth place teams in A facing off against each other.
The semifinals are on April 13 and the gold and bronze medal games will be a day later.
Vanisova and Pribylova and their Czechia team opened the tournament with a 4-0 win over Finland on Wednesday. Neither registered a point in the victory but Vanisova had two shots on goal and led all Czechia forwards in ice time with 19 minutes and 16 seconds. Pribylova, also a forward, logged 14:35 in ice time.
Vanisova, who racked up 129 points on 63 goals and 66 assists in her UMaine career from 2016-20, plays for Ottawa in the Professional Women’s Hockey League after being traded to Ottawa by Montreal.
She had two goals and eight assists in 17 games for Montreal and was scoreless in her first two games for Ottawa.
The 28-year-old Vanisova scored the game-winning overtime goal last season to give the Toronto Six their first Premier Hockey Federation Isobel Cup title by virtue of a 4-3 win over Minnesota.
The 28-year-old Pribylova is currently playing professional hockey in Sweden for MoDo Ornskoldsvik where she has five goals and six assists in 20 games. She also played at UMaine from 2016-20 and had 21 goals and 39 assists in 129 games.
Andersen, younger sister of Carolina Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen, played 60 games at UMaine from 2019-23 and netted two goals and seven assists while being used as a defenseman and a forward.
The 24-year-old is currently playing in the Swedish pro league for Rogle BK where she has been a defenseman.
Denmark lost its opener to Sweden 3-1 and Andersen led her team in minutes played with 26:05.
Her young teammate, the 19-year-old Foss, had 12:31 in ice time and didn’t register a point. She played for Shattuck-St.Mary’s School in Minnesota this season where she had 23 goals and 25 assists in 51 games.
The 23-year-old Enzler, who had her best season at UMaine this year as the team’s third-leading scorer with 26 points on six goals and a team-high 20 assists, opened the tournament against the United States and she and her Swiss teammates suffered a 4-0 loss.
Enzler played the third-most minutes for the Swiss (20:06).
Enzler has a year of eligibility remaining at UMaine but Black Bear head coach Molly Engstrom said Enzler is planning on beginning a pro career in Europe.
She played 103 games at UMaine and finished with 11 goals and 38 assists.
The 21-year-old Welcke twins had impressive freshman seasons at UMaine with Luisa finishing second on the team in scoring with 22 points on eight goals and 14 assists and Lilli tying for third with 21 points on six goals and 15 assists.
But both had sizable drop-offs at BU this past season as Luisa wound up with 12 points on seven goals and five assists and Lilli had 11 on two goals and nine assists. They were eighth and 12th on the team in scoring, respectively.
Their German team opened the tournament against Denmark on Thursday afternoon.