August 18, 2010
NR.101

CANADA’S NATIONAL WOMEN’S UNDER-22 TEAM AND NATIONAL WOMEN’S UNDER-18 TEAM TO COMPETE IN THREE-GAME SERIES AGAINST UNITED STATES; BOTH TEAMS ANNOUNCE
CAPTAINS AND ALTERNATES

TORONTO, Ont. – Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team and National Women’s Under-18 Team, named Sunday following selection camps in Toronto, will both meet the United States in three-game series that start today.

The National Women’s Under-22 Team will play the United States’ Women’s Under-22 Select Team at the MasterCard Centre, the same facility where the recent selection camps were held. The National Women’s Under-18 Team will take on the Americans in Lake Placid, N.Y., where it will face off against the United States’ Women’s Under-18 Select Team at the Lake Placid Olympic Center.

Both series start today, with the puck dropping on the National Women’s Under-22 Team for its first game at 8:15 p.m. ET in Toronto and the National Women’s Under-18 Team hitting the ice for its first game at 4 p.m. ET in Lake Placid. The second games for both teams are Thursday, August 19 and the third and final games are Saturday, August 21.

Coaching staffs for both teams also announced their captains and alternate captains Tuesday. Jennifer Wakefield (Pickering, Ont.) will serve as captain of Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team, while Vicki Bendus (Wasaga Beach, Ont.), Courtney Birchard (Mississauga, Ont.) and Lauriane Rougeau (Beaconsfield, Que.) will take turns rotating as alternate captains. Sarah Edney (Mississauga, Ont.) will wear the ‘C’ for the National Women’s Under-18 Team, while Katy Josephs (Cochrane, Alta.) and Cydney Roesler (Stittsville, Ont.) will serve as alternate captains.
 
The 22-player rosters for both squads were chosen following the National Women’s Under-22 Team and National Women’s Under-18 Team selection camps, which ran from August 7-15 in Toronto.

Following the series, Hockey Canada scouts and coaching staffs for both teams will continue to evaluate players when they return to their club teams for the 2010-11 season, in order to decide who will represent Canada at the 2011 IIHF World Women’s Under-18 Championship next spring in Sweden and which under-22 players will compete for their country at the 2011 MLP Cup in Switzerland next January.

Kristen Lipscombe, Hockey Canada’s coordinator of communications, will be on site in Toronto throughout the National Women’s Under-22 Team’s three-game series against the United States and is handling interview requests for both teams. She can be reached at 403-826-4819 or klipscombe@hockeycanada.ca.