CALGARY, ALBERTA – Sixty of Canada’s top women’s hockey players will be in Dartmouth, NS October, 7-12, 2003 for the “Team Canada Thanksgiving Festival” with the hope of being part of Canada’s team at the 2004 IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship in Halifax, Hockey Canada announced on Wednesday.

The Festival, which launches the 2003-04 season for Team Canada, features a three-team tournament of Canadian women’s hockey players, from October 7-12, 2003 at the Dartmouth Sportsplex in Dartmouth, NS. A full schedule, including eight games and a skills competition, is attached. This Festival is for evaluation purposes, and no final roster will be named at the conclusion of this camp.

• Team Canada Thanksgiving Festival (October 7-12, 2003) Ticket Information

• Tickets are on sale now;

• Ticket prices: $5.00 Adults, $2.00 Youth (12 and under)

• To purchase tickets: (1) Halifax Metro Centre Box Office, (2) Charge by Phone (902) 451-1221 (service charges applies), (3) visit anyof 14 participating Sobeys Ticket Outlets in Halifax or (4) buy on line www.halifaxmetrocentre.com.

"October marks the beginning for Team Canada and once again Halifax is in the heart of the action," says Fred MacGillivray, President and CEO of Trade Centre Limited and Chair of the 2004 IIHF World Women's Hockey Championship host committee. "Our goal is simple, to take the World Women's to the next level by providing the best ever tournament and solidifying Halifax as the best event city in the country!"

" This is where things really start to heat up," says Grant MacDonald, Event Manager, 2004 IIHF World Women's Hockey Championship. "The Team Canada Thanksgiving Festival gives hockey fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Team Canada in its making. Tickets are $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for youth. We wanted everyone to have an opportunity to come out and share the spirit."

Hockey Canada also announced the list of sixty Canadian players and three team rosters for the Thanksgiving Festival. The list of sixty players includes seventeen members of the 2002 Olympic Champions and nineteen of the twenty players named to the 2003 World Championship Team. (The 2003 IIHF Women’s World Championship, to be held in Beijing, China, was cancelled by the IIHF due to health and security concerns).

The sixty players attending the Thanksgiving Festival were selected following a thorough scouting and evaluation process, led by the National Women’s Team coaching staff and Hockey Canada’s Head Scout for the women’s programs, Wally Kozak. Over the course of the 2003-04 season, Kozak and the coaching staff will continue to evaluate these sixty elite players and others (at Team Canada events and with their club teams in the NWHL, College/University, and other), in preparation of naming of the final roster for the World Championship which will be named in February 2004.

The three Fesitval teams have been named ‘Team Scherer’, ‘Team St-Louis’ and ‘Team Wilson’, in honour of Canada’s first three Women’s World Championship captains, Sue Scherer (1990), France St-Louis (1992, 1994) and Stacy Wilson (1997).

The National Women’s Team coaching staff for the 2003-04 season was announced in early September, with Karen Hughes returning as Head Coach, along with assistant coaches Ken Dufton and Doug Lidster.

The IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship will once again be hosted inCanada in 2004. The 2004 IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship will runfrom March 30- in Halifax, NS.