CALGARY, AB – Twenty-four of the country’s top women’s players will be in Calgary from January 25-30 for Canada’s National Women’s Team January training camp.

The camp will include two exhibition games versus local men’s midget AAA teams and two intersquad Red-White games. Three of the games will be held at Calgary’s Father David Bauer Olympic Arena, with one exhibition game being played at Red Deer Arena.

Canada will face the Calgary Northstars Midget AAA team on Tuesday, January 27 (7:30 p.m. MST, Father David Bauer Olympic Arena) and the Red Deer Optimist Rebels on Wednesday, January 28 (8 p.m. MST, Red Deer Arena). Fans are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to the two exhibition games. Players not dressed for the two games will sign autographs for fans during the first intermission of both games.

The intersquad games will be held the following two days, January 29 (1:45 p.m. MST) at Norma Bush Arena, and January 30 (9:30 a.m. MST) at the Father David Bauer Olympic Arena.

Melody Davidson, head coach of Canada’s National Women’s Team, has worked with assistant coaches Doug Lidster and Peter Smith in finalizing the roster of 24 players, which includes four goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 10 forwards.

“This should be a highly-competitive camp as we approach the 2009 IIHF World Women’s Championship,” says Davidson. “We will scout players at this camp and will also monitor all athletes in our player pool in their progression with their club teams over the next month-and-a-half.”

The January training camp is one of the steps in the lead-up to the 2009 IIHF World Women’s Championship, which will be held April 4-12 in Hameenlinna, Finland.

Hockey Canada also announced on Tuesday that defenceman Delaney Collins (Pilot Mound, MB/Calgary, WWHL) and forward Katie Weatherston (Thunder Bay, ON/Montreal, CWHL) were invited to the camp but are unable to participate due to injury.

Development activities

Hockey Canada will partner with Hockey Alberta to offer two development sessions on Sunday, January 25 at the Collicutt Centre in Red Deer.

A skills session will be offered to female Atom and Peewee players registered in the Red Deer Minor Hockey Association and surrounding communities. Also, a specialty session will be put on for female hockey coaches. For more information, contact Barb Marsh at [email protected] or Trina Radcliffe at [email protected].