TORONTO – Hockey Canada announced Sunday the 22 players named to the National Women’s Under-22 Team. Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team will travel to Lake Placid, New York for a three-game exhibition series vs. the USA’s National Women’s Under-22 Team from August 23-26.

The announcement comes following a seven-day selection camp at York University in Toronto, attended by 40 of Canada’s top Under-22 (born in 1986 or later) female players. The selection camp included a double round robin tournament between Team Canada Red, Team Canada White, and a team of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) All-Stars.

“These were certainly not easy selections to make,” said National Women’s Under-22 Team head coach Dan Church (North York, ON/ York University, CIS). “This camp once again shows the depth of women’s hockey in this country, and we are very pleased with the players chosen.”

Church and Wally Kozak, Hockey Canada’s head scout, National Women’s Teams, chose the team with the help of assistant coaches Sarah Howald (Regina, SK/University of Regina, CIS) and Stephanie White (Toronto, ON/Mississauga, NWHL).

Twenty players were named to the roster from the National Women’s Under-22 Team selection camp. The remaining two spots were filled by Rebecca Johnston (Sudbury, ON) and Jennifer Wakefield (Pickering, ON), who were named to the team following the National Women’s Under-19 Program evaluation camp in July.

The roster named on Sunday includes 14 players who were a part of Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team during the 2006-07 season (Agosta, Chouinard, Fridfinnson, Gagnon, Hosier, Johnston, Jones, Larocque, McMeekin, Scanzano, Smith, Szabados, Thibault, Ward) and eight rookies (Allen, Blais, Cockell, Giles, Hunt, Irwin, Shaw, Wakefield).

The team also includes two players who won gold medals at the 2007 IIHF World Women’s Championship in Winnipeg, MB (Agosta, Johnston) and one additional player with National Women’s Team experience (Szabados, 2006 4 Nations Cup).