CALGARY, ALBERTA – Canada's National Women's Hockey team roster of twenty players for the upcoming 2005 IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship in Sweden was introduced on Monday during press conferences held in Calgary, AB, Montreal, QC, and Toronto, ON.

The 2005 IIHF World Women's Hockey Championship runs from April 2-9, 2005 in Norrköping and Linköping, Sweden. Canada has won gold at all eight previous IIHF World Women’s Championships, including the 2004 event that was held in Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Canada will travel with 24 players, which includes an extra goalie, two extra defencemen, and one extra forward.  Each team may only name 20 players to its roster at the start of the event.

The official broadcaster of Hockey Canada, TSN/RDS, will be broadcasting Canada’s games at the 2005 IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship from Sweden, beginning with Canada vs. Kazakhstan on Sunday, April 3 at 2 pm ET / 11 am PT (check local listings).

Canada’s 2005 World Championship 20 player roster includes 16 returning players that won gold at the 2004 Women’s World Championship in Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Thirteen of the 20 players named today were members of Canada’s Women’s team that won gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Three players (Labonté, MacLeod, and Vaillancourt) will be making their World Championship debut, but have previous international experience with Canada’s Under-22 Women’s team program.

The players on Canada's 2005 World Women’s Championship roster have combined to win 61 World Championship gold medals, 13 Olympic gold medals and seven Olympic silver medals and have played a total of 1,407 international games with Canada's National Women's Team.

Canada’s coaching staff for the 2005 IIHF World Women’s Championship and the 2006 Winter Olympic Games are: Melody Davidson, Head Coach; Tim Bothwell, Assistant Coach; and Margot Page, Assistant Coach. The coaching staff, along with Head Scout, Wally Kozak, chose Canada’s roster for this year’s World Championship team. Within three weeks of the conclusion of the 2005 World Championship, Team Canada will announce a centralization roster that will train full time in Calgary, AB beginning in August in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympics Games.

"The quality of our players is at an all time high and there is a fine line between being on the World Championship team and not being selected," said Melody Davidson, Head coach of Team Canada. "The coaching staff’s final decisions on player selection for this year’s team were extremely difficult, but we are confident that we have put together a roster of players that will compliment each other and represent Canada to the standard we are accustomed to."

Quick facts about Canada's 2005 World Championship National Women's Team:

• 2002 Olympic gold medalists (13): Béchard, Botterill, Campbell, Goyette, Hefford, Kellar, Ouellette, Piper, Pounder, Sostorics, St-Pierre, Sunohara, Wickenheiser
• 1998 Olympic silver medalists (7): Botterill, Campbell, Goyette, Hefford, Kellar, Sunohara, Wickenheiser
• National Under-22 Team alumnus (14): Apps, Béchard, Bredin, Botterill, Collins-Pye, Kingsbury, Labonté, MacLeod, Ouellette, Piper, Sostorics, St-Pierre, Vaillancourt, Wickenheiser
• Seven-time World Champion (1): Goyette
• Six-time World Champions (2): Campbell, Sunohara
• Five-time World Champions (2): Pounder, Wickenheiser
• Four-time World Champions (5): Kellar, Botterill, Hefford, Ouellette, St-Pierre
• Three-time World Champion (1): Béchard
• Two-time World Champions (3): Collins-Pye, Kingsbury, Sostorics
• One-time World Champions (3):  Apps, Bredin, Piper
• World Championship rookies (3): Labonté, MacLeod, Vaillancourt
• Canada has won gold at all 8 IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championships (’90, ’92, ’94, ’97, ’99, ’00, ’01, ’04)

A gold medal by Canada at this year’s Championship would tie the IIHF record for most consecutive wins at an IIHF World Championship with nine. The current record is held by the Soviet Union’s Men’s hockey team when they won the World Championships from 1963-1971, inclusive.

Canada's National Women's Team will be arriving in Linköping, Sweden on for a five-day pre-competition camp. Details regarding the pre-competition camp will be announced shortly.