Women’s Worlds set for Saturday, and Team Canada is burning up

The IIHF Women's World Championship is the Olympics when there are no Olympics. The top eight teams in the world clash for supremacy, and the one who comes out on top has bragging rights for one year instead of four, but it's still incredibly good hockey.

While plenty of the usual suspects dot the Team Canada roster, there are also eight rookies suiting up for this tournament. Four of them played in the CWHL this past season, and two are part of the Inferno — namely, Sarah Davis and Jessica Campbell, both of whom made an impact on a Calgary squad that made the playoffs for the second year straight. The other four are NCAA products, three coming from the dominant WCHA, while one — Jillian Saulnier of Cornell — represents the ECAC.

There are also plenty of CWHLers on this list, including four total from Calgary (the aforementioned Davis and Campbell, plus Rebecca Johnston and Bailey Bram). Haley Irwin was named to the list, but bowed out due to injury; Montreal's Caroline Ouellette replaced her last week. Other notable names include Boston's Tara Watchorn and Genevieve Lacasse (the only Olympian goalie of the trio going to Malmo), Jamie Lee Rattray of Brampton, and Natalie Spooner of the Furies.

Marie-Philip Poulin was named captain of Team Canada on Thursday, and it's little surprise (to me at least). This is her fifth World Championship, and she's won two Olympic gold medals with Canada in 2010 and 2014 (and played huge roles in each). She was also a top-three finalist for the 2015 Patty Kazmaier, awarded to the top NCAA women's hockey player each year, for her terrific play this season for Boston University. (She eventually lost out to Boston College and Team USA rival Alex Carpenter, in case you were wondering.) Poulin is an invaluable player for Team Canada, as she thrives in international play and can make things happen with or without the puck. She'll be assisted by Spooner, Johnston, Brianne Jenner and Lauriane Rougeau.

Other names you should pay attention to on Team Canada:

Canada begins play against their old foes, Team USA, Saturday at 9 a.m. MDT (11 a.m. EDT). (Check out my overview of Team USA here at Hockey Wilderness.) TSN will air all of Team Canada's games, plus the medal round. You can also catch live updates, complete with times of each game (set in EDT, so subtract two hours from each time), on the game schedule page. Unfortunately for those living in the U.S., there's no live streaming or televised games, which grinds my gears, but… what can you do, right?

Stay tuned for updates on the Inferno representatives at the Women's Worlds throughout the tournament, which ends April 4.

by Angelica Rodriguez