CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada announced Wednesday the 23 players named to Canada’s National Women’s Team for the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship, taking place April 4-14 in Espoo, Finland.

Canada’s roster , which includes three goaltenders, seven defencemen and 13 forwards, was selected by head coach Perry Pearn, alongside Gina Kingsbury, director of women’s national teams, with support from head scout Melody Davidson, as well as the coaching staff and regional scouts.

“We have recently had two competitive short-term competitions with the 4 Nations Cup and Rivalry Series where we’ve had a chance to assess and measure ourselves against other top nations,” said Kingsbury. “The players we have selected have had success at various levels of their careers, both nationally and internationally, and we’re excited to get started in Finland.”

Canada’s National Women’s Team roster for the IIHF Women’s World Championship includes:

• Six players making their world championship debut (Bettez, Bourbonnais, Daoust, Gabel, Nurse, Zandee-Hart);
• 18 players who won a silver medal with Canada’s National Women’s Team at the 2018 4 Nations Cup in Saskatoon, Sask. (Bourbonnais, Daoust, Fast, Fortino, Gabel, Jenner, Johnston, Larocque, Maschmeyer, Nurse, Poulin, Rattray, Saulnier, Spooner, Stacey, Szabados, Turnbull, Zandee-Hart);
• 16 players who won a silver medal with Canada’s National Women’s Team at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea (Clark, Daoust, Fast, Fortino, Jenner, Johnston, Lacasse, Larocque, Lacquette, Nurse, Poulin, Saulnier, Spooner, Stacey, Szabados, Turnbull).

Canada opens the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship against Switzerland on April 4 and will also face the United States (April 6), Russia (April 8) and host Finland (April 9) in preliminary-round play. The bronze and gold-medal games are scheduled for April 14. For the complete tournament schedule, click here.

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast all of Canada’s games at the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship; check local listings for all broadcast times.

The 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship is the 19th since the tournament’s inception in Ottawa in 1990. Canada’s National Women’s Team has appeared in every previous world championship gold medal game, winning 10 gold medals (1990, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2012) and eight silver (2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017).

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Women’s Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow through social media on Facebook, Twitter, and www.Twitter.com/HC_Women.