April 25, 2013
CALGARY, Alta. - Five Terriers, including junior co-captain Marie-Philip Poulin and senior Jenelle Kohanchuk, will be centralized with Canada's National Women's Team for the 2013-14 season in preparation for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Hockey Canada announced on Thursday.
Poulin and Kohanchuk will join Jenn Wakefield ('12), Catherine Ward ('11) and Tara Watchorn ('12) on the 27-player roster. The players will visit Calgary in late May for orientation and fitness testing in preparation for the 2013-14 season. The players will then return in August to start training full-time with Hockey Canada.
Poulin, Wakefield and Ward each won silver with Canada at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship in April. Poulin was named the tournament's most valuable player and top forward after she led all skaters with 12 points (6g, 6a). Wakefield (4g, 4a) was tied for second in goals and points and owned the top faceoff percentage (76.36) in the tournament. Ward (1g, 6a) led all defenseman in points, was tied for the tournament lead in assists and finished tied for fifth among all skaters in points.
Kohanchuk capped her career at BU with her best season as a Terrier in 2012-13. She set career highs in goals (25) and points (46) and was named a Hockey East Second Team All-Star. The Winnipeg, Man., native notched at least two points in three of her final four games and finished her collegiate career with 66 goals and 72 assists for 138 points.
Watchorn graduated as the Terriers' highest-scoring defenseman in program history. She tallied 21 goals and 63 assists for 84 career points, including three assists in her final game, an NCAA tournament tilt at Cornell. Watchorn scored the game-winning goal to clinch the program's first Hockey East championship, a 2-1 overtime win against Connecticut in 2010.
The final roster that will be nominated to Canada's National Women's Team for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games will likely be determined by late December, about two months prior to the start of competition in Sochi, Russia.
