COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Hockey today announced the 23-player roster for the U.S. Women’s National Team that will compete for its fourth straight title at the 2018 Four Nations Cup from Nov. 6-10 at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
The roster features 16 members of the 2018 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team that won gold at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, including Cayla Barnes (Eastvale, Calif.), Kacey Bellamy (Westfield, Mass.), Hannah Brandt (Vadnais Heights, Minn.), Dani Cameranesi (Plymouth, Minn.), Kendall Coyne Schofield (Palos Heights, Ill.), Brianna Decker (Dousman, Wis.), Kali Flanagan (Hudson, N.H.), Megan Keller (Farmington Hills, Mich.), Amanda Kessel (Madison, Wis.), Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho), Gigi Marvin (Warroad, Minn.), Sidney Morin (Minnetonka, Minn.), Kelly Pannek (Plymouth, Minn.), Emily Pfalzer (Buffalo, N.Y.), Alex Rigsby (Delafield, Wis.) and Maddie Rooney (Andover, Minn.).
Megan Bozek (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) – 2014 Olympic silver medalist – and Annie Pankowski (Laguna Hills, Calif.) both competed as members of the 2017-18 U.S. Women’s National Team that won the 2017 Four Nations Cup in Tampa, Florida, while six others will make their Four Nations Cup debut, including Sydney Brodt (North Oaks, Minn.), Mikaela Gardner (Plainfield, Ill.), Caitrin Lonergan (Roslindale, Mass.), Morin, Emma Polusny (Mound, Minn.) and Melissa Samoskevich (Sandy Hook, Conn.).
“The Four Nations Cup provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate our player pool at the start of a new season and new quad,” said Reagan Carey (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey director of women’s hockey and general manager of the U.S. Women’s National Team. “The roster contains a number of veterans of our program, but also a great mix of new players that we are excited to see compete at the international level.”
The 23 players represent 10 different states. Minnesota leads the pack with eight representatives followed by Illinois and Wisconsin, each with three. California and Massachusetts have two representatives apiece and Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, New Hampshire and New York all have one.
A camp will be held in Chicago from Oct. 28-Nov. 3 before the team departs for Saskatchewan. Details will be available at teamusa.usahockey.com prior to the camp. The 11 collegiate players on the roster, including Barnes, Brodt, Flanagan, Gardner, Keller, Lonergan, Pankowski, Pannek, Polusny, Rooney and Samoskevich, will join the team at the end of the camp on Nov. 2.
As part of the ongoing development process, Under-18 players Hadley Hartmetz (Phoenixville, Pa.), Caroline Harvey (Pelham, N.H.), Hannah Hogenson (Anchorage, Alaska), Abbey Murphy (Evergreen Park, Ill.), Dominique Petrie (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Skylar Vetter (Lakeville, Minn.) will join post-graduate players Savannah Harmon (Downers Grove, Ill.) and 2014 Olympic silver medalist Shelly Picard (Taunton, Mass.) to participate in the camp only. Hartmetz, Harvey, Murphy, Petrie and Vetter recently competed for the U.S. Under-18 Women’s Select Team during the Under-18 Series vs. Canada in August in Calgary, while Harmon and Picard participated in the U.S. Women’s National Team Evaluation Camp in September in Biddeford, Maine.
NOTES: The Four Nations Cup is an annual tournament that has been held in varying forms since 1996 (previously the Three Nations Cup). The U.S. will compete against Canada, Sweden and Finland in this year’s tournament. The U.S. has captured the Four Nations Cup title eight times (1997, 2003, 2008, 2011-12, 2015-17), finished second 12 times and third in the 2013 tournament. The U.S. holds an overall record of 51-5-5-23-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T) in 86 Three/Four Nations Cup games … USA Hockey’s international council, chaired by Gavin Regan (Potsdam, N.Y.), has oversight responsibilities for all U.S. national teams.
