4 Nations Cup

The 4 Nations Cup is an annual women's ice hockey tournament, held between four major national teams in the sport; currently, these are Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland. Until 2000, when Sweden joined, the tournament was the 3 Nations Cup. In general, it is held in or around November each year.

History
The 3 Nations Cup was first held in 1996. Sweden joined the tourney in 2000, but the USA did not attend the 2001 event due to the September 11 attacks; the 4 Nations roster has been constant since 2002.

The format of the tournament is a single round-robin, with each team playing one game against each of the others. The top two teams advance to the gold-medal game. The last two teams play for bronze. When it was the 3 Nations Cup, the third place team was simply awarded bronze. Team Canada has won 13 gold medals since the four nations cup creation in 1996 and team USA has won 5 gold medals.