CALGARY, Alta. – The first major international tournament of the 2009-10 women’s hockey season kicks off on Monday with the 2009 Hockey Canada Cup in Vancouver, B.C.

The top four women’s hockey teams in the world – Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States – will compete for gold at Vancouver’s General Motors Place, which will be the site of playoff games in women’s hockey at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The 2009 Hockey Canada Cup is being used as a test event for the Games.

Canada’s National Women’s Team will open the tournament against Sweden on Monday (7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET), with the United States taking on Finland in the early game (3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET). Hockey fans can catch all of the action via webcast at www.hockeycanada.ca for $6.95 per game. Full event webcast packages are available, with an exclusive offer to Hockey Canada Insiders. All games, except the gold medal game, will be available through the webcast.

TSN, Hockey Canada’s official broadcaster, will televise the gold medal game of the 2009 Hockey Canada Cup on Sunday, September 6. The game will be shown on tape delay at 9 p.m. PT/midnight ET.

“Whenever you have the top four teams in the world in one event, you know it’s going to be competitive, fast, exciting hockey,” says Melody Davidson, head coach of Canada’s National Women’s Team. “Hockey fans who weren’t successful in getting tickets to the Olympics have a great chance to see the top players anyway at the Hockey Canada Cup. This is the next best thing.”

Tickets for the 2009 Hockey Canada Cup are available now at www.ticketmaster.ca. A full tournament package, which includes access to 10 games, is available for the low price of $120. Single-game tickets are also on sale through Ticketmaster.

Canada enters the 2009 Hockey Canada Cup after a successful start to the centralized season, picking up four victories, one over Sweden’s national women’s team and three against Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team.

Twenty-six players make up Canada’s National Women’s Team. The 2009 Hockey Canada Cup is the first of a number of events that Canada’s management and coaching staff will use to monitor players in the lead-up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Canada will also compete in the 2009 4 Nations Cup in November in Finland, six games versus the United States throughout the season, and 30 games against Midget AAA boys teams from the Alberta Midget Hockey League.