The 2004 IIHF World Women's Championships were held March 30 – April 6, 2004 in Halifax and Dartmouth, Canada at the Halifax Metro Centre (now known as Scotiabank Centre), and the Dartmouth Sportsplex (now known as Zatzman Sportsplex). The Canadian national women's hockey team won their eighth straight World Championships. The event had 9 teams, because the 2003 event was cancelled due to the SARS epidemic, therefore no teams were relegated and the winners of the 2002 and 2003 Division I tournaments qualified. Canada won their 37th consecutive World Championship game before losing 3–1 in their third game. They later avenged their loss to the US by defeating them in the gold medal game 2–1. Sweden and Finland also met each other twice, with Finland winning the bronze medal game 3–2 improving on the earlier draw.
In addition to being the qualifications for the 2005 world tournaments, this year also finalized the qualification for the Torino Olympics.
Top Division
Preliminary round
Group A
Group B
Group C
Qualifying round
Group D
Group E
Group F
Final round
Bronze medal game
Final
Final standings
Awards and statistics
Scoring leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalties In MinutesSource: IIHF.com
Goaltending leaders
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)
TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = ShutoutsSource: IIHF.com
Directorate Awards
Goaltender: Kim St. Pierre
Defenceman: Angela Ruggiero
Forward: Jayna Hefford
Most Valuable Player: Jennifer Botterill
All-Star team
Goaltender: Pam Dreyer
Defencemen: Gunilla Andersson, Angela Ruggiero
Forwards: Jennifer Botterill, Natalie Darwitz, Jayna Hefford
Division I
The Division I IIHF World Women's Championships were held March 14–20, 2004 in Ventspils, Latvia
is promoted to the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships, and are demoted to Division II
Awards and statistics
Directorate Awards
Goalie: Yelena Kuznetsova, (Kazakhstan) Defender: Olga Konysheva, (Kazakhstan) Forward: Iveta Koka, (Latvia) Source: Passionhockey.com
Scoring leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalties In MinutesSource: IIHF.com
Goaltending leaders
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)
TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = ShutoutsSource: IIHF.com
Division II
The Division II IIHF World Women's Championships will be held March 14–20, 2004 in Sterzing, Italy
is promoted to Division I while and are demoted to Division III in the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships
Awards and statistics
Directorate Awards
Goalie: Zuzana Tomčíková
Defender: Jana Kapustová
Forward: Maria Leitner
Source: Passionhockey.com
Scoring leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalties In MinutesSource: IIHF.com
Goaltending leaders
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)
TOI = Time on ice (minutes:seconds); GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO = ShutoutsSource: IIHF.com
Division III
The Division III IIHF Women World Championships were held March 21–28, 2004 in Maribor, Slovenia.
was promoted to Division II at the 2005 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships, while both and were relegated to the newly formed Division IV.
Awards and statistics
Directorate Awards
Goalie: Nina Geyer, (Austria) Defender: Kerstin Oberhuber, (Austria) Forward: Jasmina Rosar, (Slovenia) Source: Passionhockey.com
Scoring leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalties In MinutesSource: [ IIHF.com]