CALGARY, Alta – Hockey Canada announced Tuesday the 40 players who have been invited to Canada’s National Women’s Under-22/Development Team selection camp, taking place Aug. 2-13 at the WinSport Canada Athletic & Ice Complex in Calgary.

The invitation list includes four goalies, 12 defencemen and 24 forwards. Invitations have been based on fitness testing conducted at Canada’s National Women’s Program strength and conditioning camp held in Toronto, Ont., in May, as well as evaluations by Hockey Canada scouts during the 2011-12 season, including past performances within the national program, with their club teams and at provincial and national championships with Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The 40 players will be split into two teams, Blue and Gold, and will participate in several practices and intersquad games during the selection camp. It will be held in conjunction with Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team selection camp, which will split another 40 players into two teams, Red and White, for practices and intersquad games.

From the selection camp, Hockey Canada will choose 22 players for a three-game series against the United States’ Women’s Under-22 Select Team, scheduled for Aug. 14-19 in Calgary. Following the series, Hockey Canada scouts, along with the team’s coaching staff, will continue to evaluate players with their club teams during the 2012-13 season, in preparation for selecting the Canadian team that will compete at the 2013 Meco Cup next January in Germany. Canada has won the tournament eight times in 10 years, losing just four games.

Hockey Canada also announced that Lisa Jordan (Westville, N.S./Ryerson University, CIS) will serve as head coach, while Pierre Alain (Mirabel, Que./St-Jérôme, Collégial AA) and Cassandra Turner (Campbellford, Ont./Quinnipiac University, ECAC) will be assistant coaches and Perry Wilson (LaSalle, Ont./University of Windsor, CIS) will serve as goaltending coach during Canada’s National Women’s Under-22/Development Team selection camp and the subsequent series against the U.S.

Canada’s National Women’s Under-22/Development Team camp invitation list features:

• one player who won a gold medal with Canada’s National Women’s Team at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C. (Poulin);
• two players who were centralized with Canada’s National Women’s Team in Calgary during the 2009-10 season (Jenner, Poulin);
• three players who won a gold medal with Canada’s National Women’s Team at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Burlington, Vt., in April (Fortino, Jenner, Poulin);
• six players who won a gold medal with Canada’s National Women’s Under-18-Team at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship in Zlin, Czech Republic, in January (Ambrose, Dufault, Kohler, Lefort, Maschmeyer, Stacey);
• 11 players who won a bronze medal with Canada’s National Women’s Under-22/Development Team at the 2012 Meco Cup in Füssen, Germany, in January (Bram, Campbell, Channell, Davis, Edney, Kosta, Menard, Pacholok, Poudrier, Rattray, Saulnier).

Canada’s National Women’s Under-22/Development Team selection camp invitees, by province:

Ontario – 20 (Ambrose, Babstock, Channell, Cudmore, Doyle, Edney, Fast, Fortino, Fulton, Howe, Jenner, Kohler, Kosta, McParland, Menard, Mercer, Rattray, Stacey, Terry, Zgraja)

Québec – nine (Daoust, Davidson, Douville, Desbiens, Lavoie, Lefort, Poudrier, Poulin, Tutino)

Manitoba – four (Bestland, Bram, Dufault, Lacquette)

Alberta – three (Esposito, Maschmeyer, Pacholok)

British Columbia - one (Fratkin)

Saskatchewan – one (Campbell)

Newfoundland and Labrador – one (Davis)

Nova Scotia – one (Saulnier)

Hockey Canada will be holding several female development activities, including the 2012 Female Officiating Program of Excellence seminar, intermission mini-games and Experience a Dream, which will give young girls the chance to join under-22 players for off-ice and on-ice warm-ups during the Canada-United States three-game series.

Hockey Canada will also host the 2012 Female Program of Excellence coaching seminar Aug. 8-12 in Calgary. The seminar will feature all coaching staffs of teams competing at the 2012 National Women’s Under-18 Championship in Dawson Creek, B.C. Please contact Trina Radcliffe, Hockey Canada’s manager of female development, for more information on female development activities and the upcoming coaching seminar at (403) 777-3601 or [email protected].

NOTE TO MEDIA: Kristen Lipscombe, Hockey Canada’s coordinator of communications, will be on site in Calgary for Canada’s National Women’s Under-22/Development Team selection camp. Please contact her for any interview requests, leading up to and during camp, at (403) 826-4819 or [email protected].

For more information on Canada’s National Women’s Program and Hockey Canada, please visit www.HockeyCanada.ca/NWT, or follow along through social media at www.facebook.com/HockeyCanada, www.Twitter.com/HockeyCanada and www.Twitter.com/HC_TeamCanada.