Ice hockey at the 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 in 1964-76, and the Canadian men's team in 1920-1932.

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

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.

Officials
The IIHF selected six referees and nine linesmen to work the 2014 Winter Olympics. They were the following:


 * Referees
 * 🇺🇸 Erin Blair
 * 🇨🇦 Melanie Bordeleau
 * 🇨🇦 Jay Cheverton
 * 🇫🇮 Anna Eskola
 * 🇩🇪 Nicole Hertrich
 * 🇳🇴 Aina Hove
 * 🇺🇸 Jack Long
 * 🇬🇧 Joy Tottman


 * Linesmen
 * 🇸🇪 Therese Bjorkman
 * 🇨🇦 Denise Caughey
 * 🇨🇦 Stephanie Gagnon
 * 🇫🇷 Charlotte Girard
 * 🇺🇸 Alicia Hanrahan
 * 🇺🇸 Laura Johnson
 * 🇸🇰 Michaela Kúdeľová
 * 🇨🇿 Ilona Novotná
 * 🇨🇿 Zuzana Svobodová

Format
The top four teams based on the 2012 IIHF World Ranking, 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. 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 86 to 4. It is the same format used in the IIHF Women's World Championship since 2012.

Tiebreak criteria
In each group, teams were ranked according to the following criteria:
 * number of points (3 points for a regulation time win, 2 points for an overtime or shootout win, 1 point for an overtime or shootout defeat, 0 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):
 * points obtained in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
 * goal difference in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
 * number of goals scored in head-to-head matches between the teams concerned;
 * 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);
 * place in 2012 IIHF World Ranking.

All times are local (UTC+4).

Bracket

 *  † Indicates overtime victory
 *  ‡ Indicates shootout victory

Quarterfinals
The top two teams (A1–A2) received byes and were deemed the home team in the semifinals as they were seeded to advance.

Semifinals
Teams seeded A1 and A2 were the home teams.

Final rankings
The final rankings of the 2014 Winter Olympics Women's Ice Hockey Tournament are as follows:

Scoring leaders
List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalties in Minutes; POS = Position Source: IIHF.com

Leading goaltenders
Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list. Source: IIHF.com

Tournament awards

 * Media All-Stars
 * Goalkeeper: Florence Schelling
 * Defense: 🇺🇸 Megan Bozek (USA), 🇫🇮 Jenni Hiirikoski (FIN)
 * Forwards: 🇺🇸 Amanda Kessel (USA), 🇨🇦 Meghan Agosta-Marciano (CAN), 🇺🇸 Hilary Knight (USA)


 * Most Valuable Player: Florence Schelling


 * Individual Awards as selected by the Tournament Directorate
 * Best Goalkeeper: Florence Schelling
 * Best Defenseman: 🇫🇮 Jenni Hiirikoski (FIN)
 * Best Forward: 🇫🇮 Michelle Karvinen (FIN)