CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada announced Thursday the 22 players who have been chosen to represent Canada at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship, taking place from Dec. to Jan. in Prerov and Zlin, Czech Republic.
Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team includes two goaltenders, seven defencemen and 13 forwards. Defenceman Erin Ambrose (Keswick, Ont./Toronto, PWHL) returns to the roster after claiming a silver medal at the 2011 IIHF World Women’s Under-18 Championship in Stockholm, Sweden, and winning Canada’s first-ever gold medal at the 2010 IIHF World Women’s Under-18 Championship in Chicago, Ill.
Five other players also return to Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team after claiming silver at last year’s world championship, including Meghan Dufault (Winnipeg, Man./Balmoral Hall, JWHL), Rebecca Kohler (St. Thomas, Ont./Bluewater, PWHL), Cayley Mercer (Exeter, Ont./Bluewater, PWHL), Cydney Roesler (Stittsville, Ont./Ottawa, PWHL) and Laura Stacey (Kleinburg, Ont./Toronto, PWHL).
Eighteen players were also members of Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team for a three-game series against the U.S. Women’s Under-18 Team in August in Rockland, Ont., falling 3-2 in the first game but coming back to win 3-2 and 6-4 in the second and third games.
Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team, broken down by province:
Alberta – two (Emerance Maschmeyer*, Erika Sowchuk*)
British Columbia - one (Jordan Krause*)
Manitoba - four (Ashleigh Brykaliuk*, Meghan Dufault*, Halli Krzyzaniak*, Taylor Woods*)
Nova Scotia - one (Alexis Crossley*)
Ontario - nine (Erin Ambrose*, Kristyn Capizzano, Elaine Chuli,* Nicole Connery*, Rebecca Kohler*, Cayley
Mercer*, Morgan Richardson*, Cydney Roesler*, Laura Stacey*)
Prince Edward Island – one (Shannon MacAulay*)
Quebec – three (Catherine Dubois, Abbey Frazer, Sarah Lefort)Saskatchewan – one (Emily Clark*)
*Played for Canada in a three-game series against the United States in August.
Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team roster also includes:
“The players chosen for Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team have proven themselves to be strong and skilled at past Hockey Canada championships and events, as well as with their club and school teams,” said Kalli Quinn, director of female national teams for Hockey Canada. “We congratulate these young athletes on making it to the international stage.”
“We’re extremely excited about the talented team that will represent Canada at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship,” added head coach Pierre Alain. “These players bring great chemistry to the ice and will work hard to bring home gold from the Czech Republic to help start the new year off right.”
Alain (Mirabel, Que./St-Jérôme, Collégial AA) will be joined behind Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team bench by assistant coaches Jim Fetter (Waterloo, Ont./St. Cloud State University, WCHA) and Carla MacLeod (Calgary, Alta./Mount Royal University, ACAC), a two-time Olympic gold medallist with Canada’s National Women’s Team.
Canada plays its first game at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship against Switerzland
at 1 p.m. local time/7 a.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 31 in Prerov, and will also take on Germany and Finland in
the preliminary round. The gold medal game takes place at 7 p.m. local time/1 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 7 in
Zlin.
Kristen Lipscombe, Hockey Canada’s coordinator of communications, will be on site in the Czech Republic for
the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship. Please contact her for any interview requests at
(403) 826-4819 or klipscombe@hockeycanada.ca.
Follow Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team at www.twitter.com/HC_TeamCanada, become a fan of Hockey Canada on Facebook for updates from the Czech Republic at www.facebook.com/HockeyCanada, and for more information, please visit www.HockeyCanada.ca.