2014 Winter Olympics – Women's tournament

The women's tournament in ice hockey at the 2014 Winter Olympics was held in Sochi, Russia.

For the first time, the women's gold medal game was decided in overtime, with Canada defeating the United States 3–2. Switzerland defeated Sweden for their first Olympic ice hockey medal in 66 years, and first ever medal in the women's tournament. With the win, the Canadian women's national ice hockey team won its fourth consecutive gold medal, a feat only previously accomplished by the Soviet Union men's team in 1964–76, and the Canadian men's team in 1920–32.

Canadians Hayley Wickenheiser, Jayna Hefford and Caroline Ouellette became the first hockey players to win four Olympic gold medals. They also joined Soviet biathlete Alexander Tikhonov and German speed skater Claudia Pechstein as the only athletes to win gold medals in four straight Winter Olympics.^[1]

Qualification

Main article: 2014 Winter Olympics – Women's qualification

Russia qualified as the host. Canada, the United States, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden qualified as the top five teams in the IIHF World Ranking. Germany and Japan qualified via the qualification tournament.^[2]^[3]

Preliminary round

Format

The top four teams based on the 2012 IIHF World Ranking,^[4] Canada, United States, Finland and Switzerland, competed in Group A, while the remaining four teams competed in Group B. The top two teams in Group A received a bye to the semifinals. In the quarterfinals, the third place team in Group A played the second place team in Group B, while the fourth placed team in Group A played the first place team in Group B. The winners advanced to the semifinals, while the two losers, and the third and fourth placed teams in Group B, competed in a classification bracket for places five through eight.^[5] This format was introduced to create more competitive games in response to blowout victories in the previous Olympics where Canada and the United States outscored their competition by a cumulative 86–4 margin. It has been used in the IIHF World Women's Championships since 2012.^[6]

Tiebreak criteria

In each group, teams were ranked according to the following criteria:^[7]

Number of points (three points for a regulation-time win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout defeat, no points for a regulation-time defeat);
In case two teams are tied on points, the result of their head-to-head match will determine the ranking;
In case three or four teams are tied on points, the following criteria will apply (if, after applying a criterion, only two teams remain tied, the result of their head-to-head match will determine their ranking):
1. Points obtained in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal differential in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
3. Number of goals scored in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
4. If three teams remain tied, result of head-to-head matches between each of the teams concerned and the remaining team in the group (points, goal difference, goals scored);
5. Place in 2012 IIHF World Ranking.

All times are local (UTC+4).