Two Burnaby women made the roster of 58 players attending an evaluation camp for Canada’s national women’s team in Calgary this week. Players from this roster will be chosen to represent Canada at the 2015 IIHF ice hockey Women’s world championship in Malmo, Sweden, next April.
Formerly of the Burnaby Winter Club, Kimberly Newell is one of 16 goaltenders asked to attend the camp, which serves as an opportunity for the players to showcase their talents for the national team’s coaching staff and Team Canada scouts.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for the next generation of players to push for spots, so we’re expecting a very competitive camp to kick off the 2014/15 season,” said Melody Davidson, Hockey Canada’s general manager of national women’s team programs, in a press release.
Newell, who turns 19 on Oct. 4, was also the youngest goalie named to Hockey Canada’s national women’s development team selection camp held in August.
Newell currently plays for the United States’ Princeton University but helped Canada’s under-18 women’s hockey team earn a 2-1 overtime win over the United States at the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation world championships in Finland, in January of 2013 (Newell won top sports story of the year in this paper for 2013 for that victory.
Defenceman Kaleigh Fratkin, 22, is also doing Burnaby proud by representing her hometown at the camp. Fratkin helped her former team, the Boston University Terriers, win its third straight Hockey East women’s hockey championship in the spring and was one of 40 players named to the
2013/14 National Women’s under-22 Development Team Selection Camp. She now plays professionally for the Boston Blades of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and is one of 20 from that league selected for the fall festival camp.
The roster announcement was made Sept. 17 and the Canada national women’s team fall festival runs Sept. 22 to 28 at the MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary.
The players will be further evaluated at coming events before the final 2015 championship roster is announced.
