Great Britain Women will begin their bid to reach the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics with a four-team qualification tournament in November.
GB will come up against Kazakhstan, who will host the tournament as the highest seed.
They will also face Poland and a qualifier from the first preliminary round, which will be either Turkey, Mexico or Hong Kong.
The four-team tournament will take place in Astana from Thursday 3rd to Sunday 6th November 2016.
The winners of the four-team group will qualify for the Preliminary Round 3 in December.
Head coach, Cheryl Smith, said: “It is very exciting to be starting our Olympic journey.
“Any international ice hockey tournament is special, but there is something that extra bit special about the Olympics.
“It will be a difficult group that is for sure, but we have a great squad at the moment.
“We won another medal at the World Championship this year and came so close to gold.
“We now have the belief we can do well at big tournaments.
“The preparations start now and these are great times for GB Women’s ice hockey.”
The full schedule for the tournament will be announced in due course.