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