The Russians had a great start blanking eventual runner-up Finland 4-0 in front of 1,560 fans and beat Germany by the same result one day later. It was tighter in the last game against Sweden, which remained in the race for tournament win as well. Alyona Starovoitova gave Russia the lead with two goals midway through the game. The Swedes battled until the end of the game but Russian goalie Valeria Merkusheva was strong and the Swedes didn’t get more than Maja Nyhlen-Persson’s 2-1 goal with 2:04 left in regulation time.

The Russians won the tournament and had the top-four scorers including Tatyana Shatalova as scoring leader (2+3=5) and Starovoitova (3+1=4) as top goal scorer.

Finland beat Sweden 2-1 thanks to Kiia Nousiainen’s OT winner to claim second place ahead of their Nordic rivals and winless Germany.

In another tournament Slovakia won its home tournament in Prievidza. After starting with a 12-2 win over Italy the Slovaks surprised against the only top-division country at the event and beat Switzerland 3-1 before ending the tournament with a 3-2 overtime victory against Austria.

The line with Rahel Enzler (1+6), Lisa Ruedi (3+3) and Noemi Ryhner (4+1) shone for Switzerland and claimed the top-three spots in scoring but didn’t manage to beat Slovak goalie Adriana Stofankova more than once.