CALGARY, AB – Hockey Canada announced on Thursday that Canada’s National Women’s Team will be holding an evaluation camp from January 15-19, 2006 to which 22 players of a larger pool of players under consideration for the World Championship roster will attend. Hockey Canada also announced the players who will make up the National Women’s Under-22 Team and travel to Germany in early January to represent Canada at the 2007 European Air Canada Cup from January 3-7, 2007.
CANADA’S NATIONAL WOMEN’S TEAM
EVALUATION CAMP SET FOR CALGARY, AB
National Women’s Team General Manager and Head Coach Melody Davidson announced on Thursday the details for an evaluation camp at Calgary’s Father David Bauer Olympic Arena from January 15-19, 2007. Twenty-two of a larger pool of players under consideration for the World Championship roster will attend. A complete schedule of the Evaluation Camp will be available in early January, and will include three exhibition games against Men’s Midget AAA teams from the Alberta Midget Hockey League.
Canada’s evaluation camp marks another step in the process towards naming Canada’s roster for the 2007 IIHF World Women’s Championship which will be in Winnipeg, Manitoba from April 3-10, 2007. The camp includes 22 players, including 12 Olympic gold medalists in Turin in 2006.
The coaching staff has not released or cut any players this season and will continue to monitor and evaluate a large pool of potential players prior to the naming of a final World Championship roster in March 2007. Not all players under consideration for the World Championship are attending this evaluation camp in Calgary.
Canada’s World Championship roster will be made up of players that have played with the National Women’s Program or the Under-22 Program at some point during the 2006-07 season (Fall Festival, 4 Nations Cup, Evaluation Camp, Under-22 events).
The coaching staff, along with Head Scout Wally Kozak, will continue to evaluate players over the coming months, at the National Women’s Team Evaluation Camp, at an Under-22 event in Germany in January 2007 and with the players’ respective club teams prior to naming the World Championship Roster.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS : Ticket packages, including full tournament packages, the ‘All-Canadian 6-Pak’ and the ‘Selkirk Gold’, are still available for the 2007 IIHF World Women’s Championship at Ticketmaster at (204) 780-3333, or by visiting www.ticketmaster.ca/iihf.
CANADA’S NATIONAL WOMEN’S UNDER-22 TEAM SET FOR
2007 EUROPEAN AIR CANADA CUP
Canada’s Under-22 Team roster at the 2007 European Air Canada Cup from January 3-7, 2007 in Germany will be the same as the one that captured two of three games from the USA during a summer exhibition series in Ottawa, ON in August 2006. Canada’s roster also includes 11 players from the 2006 team which won Canada’s fourth consecutive title at the 2006 European Air Canada Cup (Szabados, Gagnon, Guay, Larocque, Slusar, Bonhomme, Chouinard, Harbec, Jones, Riggs, Podloski). The team will depart for Germany on .
The roster also includes 2006 Olympic gold medalists Meghan Agosta and Sarah Vaillancourt.
After four years as a four-team, round-robin tournament between Canada, Germany, Finland and Switzerland, teams from Russia and Japan have been added this year to make it a six-nation event.
The teams have been separated into two groups, with Finland, Russia and Switzerland in Group A and Canada, Germany and Japan in Group B.
“We were very pleased with the performance of these 22 players during the summer camp and the exhibition series against the USA, and we’re excited to get to Germany,” said Nancy Wilson, head coach of the Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team. “This should be a rewarding experience for everyone involved with our team, while at the same time providing an excellent field for player evaluation, experience and development.”