Ten national teams comprising university students participated in the event, representing Canada, China, Czechia, Great Britain, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Slovakia, South Korea, and the United States.
[16] Six national under-28 teams participated in the event, representing Canada, China, Finland, Great Britain, Japan, and Slovakia.
[17] In the preliminary round, the six teams played a single round-robin to determine seeding for the semifinals.
Canada swept the preliminary round, finishing the five game series with a +28 goal difference.
Eight different skaters scored for Japan during the game and forward Ami Nakamura (Kokushikan University/Seibu Princess Rabbits) recorded a hat-trick.