Johnston, Three Former League Standouts to Represent Canada at World Championships
TORONTO – Cornell forward Rebecca Johnston headlines a group of four players with League ties named to Canada’s National Women’s Team roster for the 2011 IIHF World Women’s Championship, scheduled for April 16-25 in Zurich and Winterthur, Switzerland, Hockey Canada announced Wednesday. The team was selected following a selection camp at the MasterCard Centre in Toronto which ran from Saturday to Tuesday.
Johnston, a member of Canada’s gold-medal winning team at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, is joined for former Dartmouth standouts Gillian Apps and Cherie Piper, and former Harvard standout Sarah Vaillancourt.
Canada’s roster includes three goaltenders, six defencemen and 12 forwards. 18 players helped Canada win gold at the 2010 4 Nations Cup last November in St. John’s, N.L., 16 were part of the roster that won the gold medal at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C., and 16 played at the 2009 IIHF World Women’s Championship in Hämeenlinna, Finland, winning a silver medal.
Canada’s National Women’s Team will hold a camp from April 6-9 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, including two exhibition games against the United States at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, before departing for Europe on April 9.
Canada will attempt to win its 10th gold medal all-time at the IIHF World Women’s Championship, having previously won gold in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2007. Canada’s National Women’s Team has appeared in every gold medal game since the first IIHF World Women’s Championship in Ottawa, Ont., in 1990, winning silver in 2005, 2008 and 2009, in addition to its nine gold medals.
Canada opens the 2011 IIHF World Women’s Championship on April 16 against Switzerland, and will also face Kazakhstan and Finland in preliminary round play. The 2011 IIHF World Women’s Championship includes two groups of four teams, with the top three teams from each group advancing to the medal round, which starts on April 23.
