Hockey Canada has named 23 of the country’s top players to Canada’s National Women’s Team for the final three games of the Rivalry Series, Feb. 3-8 in Victoria and Vancouver, B.C., and Anaheim, Calif.
Canada’s roster was selected by head coach Troy Ryan (Spryfield, N.S.) and Gina Kingsbury (Rouyn-Noranda, Que.), director of women’s national teams, with support from head scout Melody Davidson (Oyen, Alta.) and Hockey Canada’s regional scouts.
The roster features 19 players who participated in the first two games of the series in Hartford, Conn., and Moncton, N.B., in December (Bach, Clark, Daoust, Desbiens, Fast, Fortino, Gabel, Jenner, Johnston, Lacasse, Larocque, Maschmeyer, Mikkelson, Nurse, Poulin, Rougeau, Saulnier, Spooner, Turnbull).
“The Rivalry Series games in December gave our coaches and staff another opportunity to evaluate our players and assess the depth of our roster, while seeing where we are in terms of competitiveness against our strongest rival,” said Kingsbury. “We mutually agreed with USA Hockey not to include any student-athletes for these three games, and with that in mind have assembled a veteran line-up that will once again prove to be competitive against the United States. We will continue to evaluate our full group as we look towards competing at the world championship in Halifax.”
Canadian Roster
| Goaltenders | ||||||
| 31 | Geneviève Lacasse | L/G | 5’8” | 147 | 05/05/89 | Kingston, Ont. |
| 35 | Ann-Renée Desbiens | L/G | 5’9” | 160 | 04/10/94 | La Malbaie, Que. |
| 38 | Emerance Maschmeyer | L/G | 5’6” | 141 | 05/10/94 | Bruderheim, Alta. |
| Defence | ||||||
| 3 | Jocelyne Larocque | L/G | 5’6” | 140 | 05/19/88 | Ste. Anne, Man. |
| 4 | Brigette Lacquette | R/D | 5’7” | 180 | 10/11/92 | Mallard, Man. |
| 5 | Lauriane Rougeau | L/G | 5’8” | 166 | 04/12/90 | Beaconsfield, Que. |
| 8 | Laura Fortino | L/G | 5’4” | 144 | 01/30/91 | Hamilton, Ont. |
| 12 | Meaghan Mikkelson | R/D | 5’9” | 150 | 01/04/85 | St. Albert, Alta. |
| 14 | Renata Fast | R/D | 5’6” | 144 | 10/06/94 | Burlington, Ont. |
| 23 | Erin Ambrose | R/D | 5’5” | 132 | 04/30/94 | Keswick, Ont. |
| Forwards | ||||||
| 6 | Rebecca Johnston | L/G | 5’9” | 148 | 09/24/89 | Sudbury, Ont. |
| 7 | Laura Stacey | R/D | 5’10” | 143 | 05/05/94 | Kleinburg, Ont. |
| 11 | Jill Saulnier | L/G | 5’5” | 144 | 03/07/92 | Halifax, N.S. |
| 15 | Mélodie Daoust | L/G | 5’6” | 157 | 01/07/92 | Valleyfield, Que. |
| 19 | Brianne Jenner | R/D | 5’9” | 159 | 05/04/91 | Oakville, Ont. |
| 20 | Sarah Nurse | L/G | 5’8” | 140 | 01/04/95 | Hamilton, Ont. |
| 24 | Natalie Spooner | R/D | 5’10” | 180 | 10/17/90 | Scarborough, Ont. |
| 26 | Emily Clark | L/G | 5’7” | 130 | 11/28/95 | Saskatoon, Sask. |
| 29 | Marie-Philip Poulin | L/G | 5’6” | 160 | 03/28/91 | Beauceville, Que. |
| 36 | Loren Gabel | L/G | 5’4” | 147 | 07/24/97 | Kitchener, Ont. |
| 40 | Blayre Turnbull | R/D | 5’7” | 155 | 07/15/93 | Stellarton, N.S. |
| 51 | Victoria Bach | L/G | 5’4” | 124 | 07/12/96 | Milton, Ont. |
| 55 | Jessie Eldridge | R/D | 5’8” | 170 | 12/17/97 | Barrie, Ont. |
