August 5, 2010
NR.094

SELECTION CAMPS FOR CANADA’S NATIONAL WOMEN’S UNDER-22 TEAM AND NATIONAL WOMEN’S UNDER-18 TEAM BEGIN SATURDAY IN TORONTO; GOALTENDERS NAMED TO CAMPS

CALGARY, Alta. – Eighty of the top young female hockey players in the country will step on to the ice at the MasterCard Centre in Toronto, Ont. starting Saturday with hopes of being selected for either Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team or Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team.

The selection camps run from August 7-15, with National Women’s Under-22 Team hopefuls split into Blue and Yellow teams and National Women’s Under-18 Team candidates split into Red and White squads. All four teams will take part in several practices and compete against each other in intersquad games, and on August 13 the under-18 and under-22 players will combine for a series of three-on-three games.

At the camp’s conclusion, 22 players will be selected for Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team and 22 players will be chosen for Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team. The two newly selected teams will then face off against each other at 7:15 p.m. ET on August 16 inside the MasterCard Centre.

Both national teams will also play in a three-game series against the United States from August 18-21. Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team will remain in Toronto to take on the United States’ Women’s Under-22 Select Team at the MasterCard Centre, while Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team will travel south to Lake Placid, N.Y., where it will face the United States’ Women’s Under-18 Select Team.

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 2010 MLP Cup in Switzerland next January.

Jim Fetter (Waterloo, Ont.) will serve as head coach of Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team, while Sarah Hodges (Regina, Sask.) will hold the same position for Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team. Assistant coaches for both teams will be named following the selection camps.

In addition, the eight goalies for the selections camps have been named following a National Women’s Program goaltending camp that ran from August 1 through today in Toronto and featured 15 of the country’s most talented young netminders. In the end, Roxanne Douville (Beloeil, Que./Qc), Erica Howe (Orleans, Ont.), Geneviève Lacasse (Scarborough, Ont.) and Amanda Mazzotta (London, Ont.) were chosen to attend the National Women’s Under-22 Team selection camp, while Elaine Chuli (Waterford, Ont.), Ann-Renée Desbiens (La Malbaie, Que./Qc), Amanda Makela (Thunder Bay, Ont.) and Brianna Piper (Oakville, Ont.) were selected to take part in the National Women’s Under-18 Team selection camp.

All players participating in the two selection camps were picked based on evaluations conducted by Hockey Canada regional scouts during the 2009-10 season, including performances with club teams, at national and international events, and at a strength and conditioning camp held in Calgary, Alta. this May.

Several development activities will take place in partnership with the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association and the Ontario Hockey Federation, and in conjunction with the selection camps. These activities include an Esso Fun Day on August 15 that will introduce adult women to hockey, a skills camp for Atom and Peewee girls on August 15 and a We Are Coaches seminar on August 21 for females interested in becoming coaches.

For more information on development activities, contact Trina Radcliffe, Hockey Canada’s manager of female development, at 403-777-3601 or tradcliffe@hockeycanada.ca. You can also contact the OWHA at 905-282-9980 or info@owha.on.ca, or register online at www.hockeycanada.ca.

Kristen Lipscombe, Hockey Canada’s coordinator of communications, will be on site in Toronto from August 11-21, for the latter half of the selection camps and the National Women’s Under-22 Team’s three-game series versus the United States. She will be handling all interview requests and can be reached at 403-826-4819 or klipscombe@hockeycanada.ca.