CALGARY, AB – Forty of Canada’s top women’s hockey players will host Russia and Sweden in a Thanksgiving Festival in Kitchener, ON,  October 3-10, 2004 at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex. 

The Thanksgiving Festival will be made up of four teams: Russia, Sweden, and two Canadian teams of 20 players on each team (Red & White) playing a three game round robin format followed by gold and bronze medal games on Sunday, October, 10.

Canada will use this Thanksgiving Festival as an evaluation of players and as a selection camp for the Four Nations Cup in Lake Placid, NY from November 10-14, 2004 (Canada, Finland, Sweden and the USA).

All games are free admission and open to the public, but fans wishing to attend are asked to bring a non-perishable food donation for the Kitchener Food Bank.

The Thanksgiving Festival provides Team Canada with a development and evaluation opportunity in preparation for the 2005 World Championship and 2006 Winter Olympics.  Following the festival the Team Canada coaching staff will announce the roster for its next event, the Four Nations Cup in Lake Placid, NY from November 10-14, 2004. The 2004-2005 season concludes in April with the 2005 IIHF World Women’s Championship in Linkoping, Sweden.

Canada has won gold at all eight of the IIHF World Women’s Championships, with the 2005 event being held in Linkoping, Sweden in April.  Canada is also the defending Olympic gold medal champions from the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City.

Team Canada’s coaching staff for the Thanksgiving Festival, the 2005 World Championship and the 2006 Olympic Games is: Head Coach Melody Davidson (Oyen, AB), and assistant coaches Tim Bothwell (Calgary, AB) and Margot Page (Stoney Creek, ON). Davidson was named as Canada’s National Women’s Team Head Coach on , while Bothwell and Page were named on .

This will be the first time Team Canada’s coaching staff will be coaching together since being named.