College women's hockey: Numerous Clarkson, St. Lawrence alumni vying for national team spots this week
Aug. 2—Women's hockey national team tryout camps will take place early this month, with 142 Canadian players showing up in Calgary, Alberta on Wednesday for the start of their camp.
There will be 24 players or staff with area connections attending either that camp or the U.S. camp, which starts Monday in Buffalo.
Eighteen people taking part in the Canadian camp hold local connections and six do in the U.S. camp. A 25th player, former Clarkson goalie Shea Tiley, was invited to Canada's camp but is unable to attend.
Canadian women's hockey is run by former St. Lawrence University standout Gina Kingsbury, who is the director of hockey operations.
"This is a great opportunity to bring all three groups together in one place and start to envision what the next four years will look like," said Kingsbury. "We are coming off a very successful season and we are looking to continue building on that. We have a full complement of experienced staff to lead our camps but having our Olympic athletes able to play leadership roles where they can mentor and share their experience is a positive step in our journey towards the 2026 Olympic Winter games in Milan."
There is a heavy Clarkson presence at Canada's camp, led by 2022 Olympic gold medalists Erin Ambrose (defense), Renata Fast (defense), Ella Shelton (defense) and Jamie Lee Rattray (forward).
Rattray won the 2014 Patty Kazmaier Award and two other Kazmaier winners from Clarkson will be at the camp in forwards Loren Gable (2019) and Elizabeth Giguere (2020).
There are also several current Golden Knight players taking part in Canada's camp including defenders Nicole Gosling, Stephanie Markowski, forwards Anna Cherkowski, Gabrielle David and Brooke McQuigge and incoming freshman defenseman Sarah Swiderski.
St. Lawrence University is sending two current players to the Canadian camp. Forward Julia Gosling was with Canada's team in the Winter Olympics but was not on the active roster. Also attending is forward Abby Hustler.
Five players with local connections are attending the U.S. camp, including Clarkson alum Savannah Harmon, a defenseman who won a silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Current Clarkson player Dominique Petrie, a forward who transferred from Harvard, will be there along with silver medalist Abby Roque, a forward who was born in Potsdam and is the daughter of former Clarkson men's hockey assistant coach Jim Roque.
Clarkson defenseman Haley Winn will attend the camp along with former Clarkson defenseman Lauren Bernard, who transferred to Ohio State before last season.
The U.S. camp staff will include Clarkson's strength-and-conditioning coach Tad Johnson.
In addition to Kingsbury, Canada's staff includes three others with local connections, including Clarkson women's coach Matt Desrosiers, who will be an assistant coach. Another assistant coach is former SLU standout Ali Domenico, who is an assistant coach at Providence College. Domenico was also an assistant coach for Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Former Clarkson captain Shannon MacAulay, who scored the game-winning goal against Minnesota in the 2014 national championship game, is also going to be at Canada's camp as the strength-and-conditioning coach for the development team.
The national teams selected at these camps will take part in the 2022 IIHF Women's World Championships from Aug. 24-Sept. 4 in Herning and Frederikshavn, Denmark.
