USA Hockey Announces Women’s National U18 Team

USA Hockey has announced its roster for the IIHF Women’s U18 World Championships, which will take place Jan. 5-12, 2-15, in Buffalo, N.Y.

The team features players from 10 different states, and nine players from last year’s squad who helped lead the team to a silver medal. Minnesota has the most representation on the team, followed by Massachusetts with four and Illinois with three.

Squad veterans include Grace Bizal (Minnetonka, Minn.), Kaitlyn Burt (Lynn, Mass.), Jincy Dunne (O’Fallon, Mo.), Rebecca Gilmore (Wayland, Mass.); Abby Rocque (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan);  Melissa Samoskevich (Sandy Hook, Conn.); and Sophie Skarzynski (Wilmette, Ill.).

Burt, a goaltender, is currently on Boston College‘s NCAA Div. I women’s hockey team.

A number of players on the team have northeast ties, with Cayla Barnes, of Corona, Calif., playing for the East Coast Wizards, and goaltender Brittany Bugalski, of Lake Worth, Fla., playing for Assabet Valley (Mass.).

Bugalski joins Assabet Valley teammates Gilmore and Caitrin Lonergan (Roslindale, Mass.) on the roster.

A number of Shattuck St. Mary’s players were also nabbed for the squad: Alexis Mauermann (younger sister of Ross Mauermann, who plays for Providence College), Samoskevich, Alex Woken, and Patricia Marshall.

The full roster is available here. 

The team’s head coach is Joel Johnson, head coach of the University of Minnesota women’s ice hockey team. He is assisted by Katie Lachapelle (Winthrop, Mass.), an assistant women’s ice hockey coach at Boston University, Brent Hill, an assistant women’s ice hockey coach at Merrimack College, and Lucy Schoedel, an assistant ice hockey coach at Buffalo State. The team will begin practicing Dec. 30.

All games will be streamed live on usahockey.fasthockey.com. The first preliminary game will be a match-up against Canada on Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. A full schedule is available here.