Lahti: Czechia’s Final Euro Tour Tune-Up Before Milan
The Women’s Euro Hockey Tour swings into Lahti and Hämeenlinna this week for its final stop before the 2026 Olympics. Across the first two legs, we’ve already seen two very different versions of this team. In Kloten, the story was progression: a shaky 5-2 opening loss to Finland, a shootout win over Switzerland, and then a composed 2-1 victory over Sweden, a three-act stress test that ended with the kind of layered, patient hockey Carla MacLeod wants to bottle for February.
In Ängelholm, the story tilted the other way. Czechia went 1-2, with flat losses to Sweden and Finland and a 1–0 grind of a win over Switzerland. The defensive ceiling was obvious (34–10 shots vs Switzerland, a shutout debut for Julie Pejšová), but so were the problems: three games, three goals, a power play stuck in neutral, and long stretches where tempo, legs, and cohesion simply weren’t there.
Lahti now becomes the bridge between those two versions of Czechia. The roster is as close to “Olympic ready” as we’ve seen, the PWHL season is underway, the NCAA kids have real minutes under their belts, and the staff has made it clear: this is a key selection window.
The setting: three games, three days, one last statement
The Lahti/Hämeenlinna stop is a classic four-nation round robin between Finland, Czechia, Sweden, and Switzerland. Just the familiar European core beating on each other for three days. Czechia’s schedule in Finland:
Dec 10 – vs Switzerland (Lahti)
Dec 11 – vs Sweden (Lahti)
Dec 12 – vs Finland (Hämeenlinna)
In the overall Euro Hockey Tour table heading into Lahti, Finland sit comfortably on top, while Czechia, Switzerland, and Sweden are stacked behind them in a tight pack. Czechia would ideally like to nick some points off Finland and stay ahead of Switzerland and Sweden in the standings.
Storyline 1: Goaltending is set at the top
The big structural thing that works for Czechia is the goaltending picture.
Klára Peslarová remains the backbone as always. Her performance in Ängelholm against Finland (26 saves on 28 shots before the empty nets) and her steady SDHL work with Brynäs have been exactly what you’d expect: calm, economical, and occasionally bailing the team out when structure frays.
Michaela Hesová (Dartmouth) returns for this leg after missing Ängelholm, and the staff clearly want to see her live again before Olympic decisions. She already has World Championship reps and now a season and a half of NCAA starts on North American ice.
Julie Pejšová is the wild card. Whether she’s picked for Milan as a third-string remains to be seen (there are few other options)
What will be interesting as we get closer to the Olympics is understanding how much the staff will rely on Peslarová in heavy back-to-backs. Not sure she’ll see that this week, but the goalie rotation will be something we keep our eye on.
Storyline 2: A blue line without Trnková, but loaded with experience
The defense group is the closest thing Czechia has to a finished puzzle, even with one major piece missing. Andrea Trnková (Clarkson University) is still out injured and hasn’t played since October; she’s been one of Czechia’s most promising young defenders and her absence is big. But the names who are here tell you how serious this roster is:
Aneta Tejralová (Seattle) and Daniela Pejšová (Boston) bring PWHL pace and big-game poise.
Dominika Lásková (SDE) has quietly rebuilt her game in the SDHL after last year’s injury-laden PWHL season and sits on 17 points in 24 games from the back end.
Sára Čajanová (Brynäs) is again one of Europe’s most productive defenders: 16 points in 23 SDHL games and top-unit power play touches.
Noemi Neubauerová (EV Zug) continues her transition from forward to defender, giving the staff a more mobile, puck-moving option who understands the forward side of the game.
Klára Seroiszková (Davos) and Adéla Fromová (SC Kolín) round out the group with heavy minutes in Switzerland and Czechia, respectively.
The question isn’t whether this blue line can handle pressure, we’ve seen it shut games down when the forwards give them reasonable support. The question is: Can exits stay clean against Finland’s forecheck? And Can they keep the middle of the ice locked against Switzerland’s Müller-Stalder-Brandli core now that the Swiss arrive with more of their A-group?
Ängelholm showed both sides of the coin: when gaps open up and line changes get scrambly, top teams punish those details. When the structure is tight, think Switzerland game, Czechia can reduce opponents to almost nothing.
Lahti is about proving that the Switzerland defensive template can be their baseline, not their ceiling.
Storyline 3: Forwards….club form is red hot, national team finishing… less so
Here’s the paradox of Czechia’s forward group right now:
At the club level, many of the key forwards are rolling.
Barbora Juříčková (HPK) is one of the most productive players in Finland’s AuroraLiiga: 18 goals and 24 assists for 42 points in 23 games, among the league’s top scorers. Albeit, the Finnish league is not on the same level as the PWHL or even the SDHL, but her consistent production is impressive.
Michaela Pejzlová (Ambri-Piotta) leads her team in Switzerland with 32 points in 21 Swiss league games and is again near the top of the SWHL scoring chart, after putting up 50 points last season.
Tereza Pištěková (SDE) sits on 21 points in 24 SDHL games, Dominika Lásková has 17, and Čajanová 16, all from the blue line or middle six.
Linda Vocetková (Djurgården) continues to adapt to full-time SDHL duty and looks every bit like a future NCAA and national-team regular.
Across the Atlantic, the NCAA rookies are doing exactly what you’d want from future national-team pillars:
Adéla Šapovalivová (Wisconsin): 18 GP, 8G–10A–18 PTS, already a point-per-game force in conference play and the WCHA’s preseason Rookie of the Year.
Tereza Plosová (Minnesota): 18 GP, 5G–4A–9 PTS, comfortably inside the Gophers’ top-six rotation.
Anežka Čabelová (Boston University): 12 GP so far, learning life in Hockey East and easing into a depth role on a struggling team.
And then there’s the PWHL wave:
Kristýna Kaltounková (New York), fresh off her record-breaking Colgate career and World Championship all-star nod, has already scored her first PWHL goal and logged19 PIM through five pro games.
Natálie Mlýnková (Montréal) has 1G–1A–2PTS in three games, fitting in as a middle-six finisher on a deep Victoire forward group.
Tereza Vanišová (Vancouver) has 0G–2A–2PTS in five games while adjusting to a new core in the Pacific Northwest.
Kateřina Mrázová (Ottawa) returns as a proven play-driver after ranking 10th in PWHL scoring in 2024 with 18 points in 23 games.
Denisa Křížová and Klára Hymlárová continue to be part of a successful Minnesota forward group, giving Czechia familiarity and built-in chemistry to lean on.
On paper, that’s a lot of firepower. Yet at the national team level, especially in Ängelholm, the story was three games, three goals: Přibylová vs Sweden, Kaltounková vs Finland, and Juříčková short-handed vs Switzerland. No power-play goals, no multi-goal outputs, and long stretches where zone entries died on the wall or pucks fizzled at the blue line. Lahti is where those two realities, red-hot club seasons and sputtering national-team finishing, need to finally line up.
The key test: can this group transfer its club habits into the national jersey? Quick, simple puck touches off the rush instead of over-handling. Shot volume early in games rather than feeling things out for 10–15 minutes. More assertiveness on the power play: first-look shots, middle-lane attacks, and fewer low-percentage seam attempts.
If the forwards can marry their club rhythm to Czechia’s structure, Lahti has a chance to look more like Kloten than Ängelholm.
Opponents snapshot: three very different problems to solve
Switzerland-the upgraded version: This is not the short-staffed Swiss group from Ängelholm. For Lahti, Switzerland arrive with more of their core: Alina Müller, Lara Stalder, and goalie Andrea Brändli headline a roster that now looks much closer to what we’ll see at the Olympics. They’re using this stop to finalize their Olympic depth chart. For Czechia, that means: no coasting through the neutral zone, no lazy backchecks on the Müller line, and a power play that has to be ready for an aggressive Swiss penalty kill.
Sweden - young, dangerous, and annoyed: Sweden outplayed Czechia for long patches in Ängelholm, forcing turnovers on the forecheck and scoring three unanswered in the third period. They’ve mixed in NCAA-based players and domestic SDHL standouts this year, and while they’re not at full PWHL strength, they are skating with more pace and confidence than they were two seasons ago. For Czechia, this is a measuring-stick game: a chance to prove that the disciplined, layered performance from Kloten wasn’t a one-off.
Finland – the familiar boss fight: Finland remain the pace-setters on this tour and the psychological boss at the end of the Czech video game. They lead the WEHT standings by a wide margin and have won the last three high-stakes meetings between these teams, including back-to-back World Championship bronze games and the 4–1 win in Ängelholm where Czechia failed to register a shot in the third period. Finland’s Lahti roster is a bit younger and more Euro-based than their full PWHL-boosted Olympic group, but the habits are the same. Finland is ruthless on the rush, simple and efficient in possession, and punishing on the power play if you hand them bench minors or sloppy line changes.
If Czechia want to change the narrative of this rivalry before Milan, taking a win off Finland in their own country, even in a December tournament, would be a big step.
What “success” looks like for Czechia in Lahti
Beyond raw results, here’s what a good week would look like:
A real offensive breakout game
One night where the dam finally cracks, three or four goals, at least one on the power play, and scoring spread beyond the usual suspects.
Cleaner, bolder power play
Even one or two well-executed power-play goals over the three games would be huge, not just for the scoreboard, but for confidence.
Winning the middle of the ice at 5v5
Especially against Finland and Switzerland. If Czechia can force those teams wide and keep rush chances to the outside, the structure is doing its job.
One or two bubble players forcing their way into the conversation
If a Juříčková, Šapovalivová, Plosová, Pištěková, or Vocetková uses this week to look undeniably “Olympic-ready,” it makes the staff’s life both harder and better.
Lahti won’t answer every question, but it’s the last controlled environment before everything gets very real. We’ve seen the floor (stagnant, slow, and searching in Ängelholm) and the ceiling (stubborn, layered, and opportunistic in Kloten). The task now is simple and brutally hard: show, over three games in three days, that the Olympic version of Czechia is closer to that Kloten identity, just faster, sharper, and a little bit meaner.
