Rosters released for USA vs. Canada series

As Hockey Canada and USA Hockey announced this week, their women’s hockey teams will participate in a joint training camp in Pennsylvania next month.

The Series

The two teams will participate in a week-long training camp in the Pittsburgh, PA, area and will compete in two exhibitions. The camp is intended to replace the Four Nations Tournament that was canceled due to the Swedish National Team’s dispute with their federation—which, thankfully, was recently resolved.

Team Canada

Forwards: Laura Stacey, Sarah Fillier, Mélodie Daoust, Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner, Emily Clark, Marie-Philip Poulin, Loren Gabel, Ann-Sophie Bettez, Blayre Turnbull, Kristin O’Neill, Victoria Bach, Emma Maltais

Defenders: Jocelyne Larocque, Lauriane Rougeau, Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose, Micah Zandee-Hart, Ella Shelton, Claire Thompson

Goalies: Geneviève Lacasse, Ann-Renée Desbiens, Emerance Maschmeyer

Team Canada has made some truly notable changes to their roster from Worlds. Some of the players who were left off are players broadly considered some of the ‘best’ on the team. It’s missing names like Rebecca Johnston and Laura Fortino, who have been staples on Team Canada rosters for years. We’ll have to wait and see if this approach pays off. If nothing else, it’s exciting to see some new, young players get a shot on a senior roster.

Players on this roster who did not play at the 2019 World Championships include Princeton’s Fillier and Thompson, Cornell’s O’Neill and Zandee-Hart, Ohio State’s Maltais, Clarkson’s Shelton, and Wisconsin graduate Desbiens.

Players on the 2019 World Championship roster who will not play in this series include Shannon Szabados, Jill Saulnier, Brianne Jenner, Brigette Lacquette, Jamie Lee Rattray, Laura Fortino, and Cornell’s Jamie Bourbonnais. Szabados, Saulnier, Jenner, Lacquette, and Fortino were on the 2018 Olympic roster.

Team USA

Forwards: Amanda Kessel, Annie Pankowski, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Alex Carpenter, Dani Cameranesi, Hilary Knight, Hannah Brandt, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Hayley Scamurra, Sydney Brodt, Kelly Pannek, Sophia Shaver

Defenders: Kacey Bellamy, Megan Bozek, Emily Matheson (née Pfalzer), Monique Lamoureux-Morando, Kali Flanagan, Megan Keller, Cayla Barnes, Lee Stecklein

Goalies: Katie Burt, Maddie Rooney, Alex Cavallini (née Rigsby)

Team USA has continued along a path of mixing rookies and young players with established veterans. Two of the notable missing players are injured (Brianna Decker and Jesse Compher). There are only three active NCAA players on the roster: Rooney and Brodt out of UMD and Barnes out of Boston College. A notable addition to this roster is recent Wisconsin graduate Shaver, who played alongside Pankowski in the NCAA and had an impressive showing during the PWHPA’s Dunkin Dream Gap Tour stop in New Hampshire earlier this month. Fans of the US will breathe a sigh of relief to see the Lamoureuxs back on a roster, too.

Players on this roster who did not play at the 2019 World Championships include Shaver, Lamoureux-Davidson, Lamoureux-Morando, Flanagan, and Burt.

Players on the 2019 World Championship roster who will not play in this series include Decker (injured), Compher (injured), Melissa Samoskevich, Michelle Picard, and St. Cloud State’s Emma Polusny.