U.S. Women’s Olympic team named, will train in Tampa this Fall

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
May 5, 2017

Tampa, Fla. –

Florida has been so nice, USA Hockey will train here twice.

After spending the week at Florida Hospital Center Ice for Olympic selection camp to select the team that will represent the U.S. at the 2018 Olympics, USA Hockey announced on Friday that the women’s Olympic team will return in September for a four-month residency camp to prepare for the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February.

The announcement was made at Amalie Arena, just prior to the full 23-player roster being revealed during a live broadcast on NHL Network, a group that includes 12 players who were also on the team in 2014.

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”It’s an honest process that is heavily scouted and heavily evaluated,’’ said USA Women’s head coach Robb Stauber, a former NHL goaltender. “It’s a real healthy process and at the end of the day, because I think we have a real clear vision, we had a lot of similarities across the board and really helped us narrow it down. With so little time, you have to have the right players.’’

The team will remain in the Tampa area through the weekend to square up some details and make final preparations for work the rest of the summer. While some players are expected to start to arrive in town as early as August, the full team is expected to report by early September (an exact date has yet to be determined). The team will reside at Saddlebrook during the residency period and train at Florida Hospital Center Ice, which features an Olympic sized sheet of ice.

It’s also natural to believe that with the team training in Tampa, there will be exhibition games held at Amalie Area. And with no location yet announced for the Four Nations Cup – a November tournament that features the U.S. Canada, Sweden and Finland – there will be speculation that it Amalie Arena could host the round-robin tournament.

Though the full details of the team’s residency period in Tampa are yet to be completed and announced, when the team does arrive back in town in September, the focus will be entirely on the task at hand – ending the long gold medal drought experienced by the U.S. women.

After winning a third consecutive gold medal at the World Championships last month, the U.S. is looking to avenge an overtime loss to Canada in the 2014 Olympic gold medal game – a game the U.S. lead by two goals with less than five minutes remaining in regulation – and bring home gold for USA for the first time since 1998.

While the motto, mentioned by star forward Hilary Knight on more than one occasion during the selection camp, is “Gold or Bust’’, it’s not the focus for this group of players. Instead it’s about paying attention to all the details needed for them to capture the first gold medal in women’s hockey in 20 years.

”We own what happened in Sochi in the championship game and we just take every day as an opportunity to get better,’’ said two-time Olympian Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson. “We individually do that when we are not together and I think that is the biggest difference when we show up to camp and everyone has gotten better at whatever they are working on specifically. It’s just going to keep getting better as the year continues.’’

The philosophy behind that idea is to each day get one-percent better than the previous day.

”It’s easy to do the math and know that if we do that, we become much better,’’ Stauber said. “So it was not a very hard sell on a group of players where a lot of them lost in 2014 and that’s a very painful experience. When you can kind of paint a picture that one-percent better every day is going to make a massive difference in the end, it’s real easy to get them to grab that concept.’’

Full 2018 Women’s Olympic roster

Goaltenders: Nicole Hensley (Lakewood, Colo.)

Alex Rigsby (Delafield, Wis.)

Maddie Rooney (Andover, Minn.)

Defense: Kacey Bellamy* (Westfield, Mass.)

Megan Bozek* (Buffalo Grove, Ill.)

Kali Flanagan (Burlington, Mass.)

Megan Keller (Farmington, Mich.)

Monique Lamoureux-Morando* (Grand Forks, N.D.)

Gigi Marvin* (Warroad, Minn.)

Emily Pfalzer (Getzville, N.Y.)

Lee Stecklein* (Roseville, Minn.)

Forwards: Hannah Brandt (Vadnais Heights, Minn.)

Dani Cameranesi (Plymouth, Minn.)

Alex Carpenter* (North Reading, Mass.)

Kendall Coyne* (Palos Heights, Ill.)

Brianna Decker* (Dousman, Wis.)

Meghan Duggan* (Danvers, Mass.)

Amanda Kessel* (Madison, Wis.)

Hilary Knight* (Sun Valley, Idaho)

Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson* (Grand Forks, N.D.)

Annie Pankowski (Laguna Hills, Calif.)

Kelly Pannek (Plymouth, Minn.)

Amanda Pelkey (Montpelier, Vt.)

*denotes member of 2014 Olympic team
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