Female Hockey

Cottrell and Packer will travel to Calgary for 2008 World Championships

Two forwards from the Little Caesars Girl’s 19 and Under team, Ashley Cottrell (Sterling Heights) and Madison Parker (Birmingham) made the 20-player roster of the U.S. Women's National Under-18 Team that will compete in the inaugural International Ice Hockey Federation World Women's Under-18 Championship from January 7-12, in Calgary, Alta.

Ashley Cottrell

Cottrell, along with 10 other members of the squad, were also part of last year's U.S. Under-18 Select Team that played Canada in a three-game series. This year’s team was picked after the USA Hockey Women’s Holiday Camp in Lake Placid at the end of December.

"I feel really good about the team that we selected,” said Katey Stone, head coach for Team USA and also the head women's coach at Harvard University. "We have a dynamic group of young players."

Joining Stone behind the bench are assistant coaches are Erin Whitten Hamlen, associate women's coach at the University of New Hampshire, and Bob Deraney, head women's coach at Providence College.

The U.S. team opens the tournament against Russia on Jan. 7, before playing Switzerland (Jan. 8) and Sweden (Jan. 9). The semifinal round is Jan. 11 and the Bronze and Gold medal games are on Jan. 12.

"I'm confident that the group we put together will represent Team USA to the highest possible level," said Michele Amidon, director of women's hockey operations for USA Hockey. "We're really looking forward to the world championship and see it as an important step forward in the development of players for world-class competition."

Madison Parker

Ruggiero takes part in 56-women USA Hockey Holiday Camp
After a break, Michigan native gets prepared for World Championships in China
Veteran USA Hockey women’s team member Angela Ruggiero traveled to Lake Placid, NY to participate in the USA Hockey Women’s Holiday Camp and sent Michigan Hockey this report:

December 26 - Welcome Back
Today was the first day of the USA Hockey Women's Holiday Camp. There are three teams this year, appropriately colored red, white and blue. The camp is going to be the tryouts for the U.S. Under 18 team, who will be competing in the first ever Under-18 World Championships in Calgary in January, as well as for the National team that will be competing in the World Championships in April in Harbin, China.

We are all very excited to be here and to get things going. It was great to get to see old friends and new faces. The under 18 girls all seemed very nervous and excited and I remember being in their shoes almost 10 years ago. For now, a good night's rest is in order.

December 27 - On the Ice
There were a few travel hiccups on the way into Lake Placid that made almost half of the campers late but everyone is on the ice today. I am playing for Team Red, with Paul Flannigan and Kevin Houle as the head coaches of our team. They are currently both serving as the assistant coaches of the National Team, so it is great to have a week under their helm. They started us out with progression drills, starting with 2-0's, 1-2's, and 2-1's. It was a very intense skate, but much needed to shake the bus legs we all had from the previous day of travel. In the afternoon we had one more intense skate to get used to the other 15 players on our team.

December 28 - Game Day!
After an early wakeup call we had an hour and fifteen minutes skate in the morning and then we started out off-ice lifting tests. Power cleans, vertical jump, long-jump, one-leg long jump, and pull-ups were the first set of tests that everyone at camp is required to participate in. These tests allow the coaches to see what kind of shape you are in and also help in determining the selection of the teams, so we all take them very seriously.

Angela Ruggiero

After a quick nap and healthy pre-game snack we headed to the site of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice” game. This rink has so much history and it is always an honor to play there. Team Blue beat us 2-1 but we get to play them again tomorrow, so hopefully we can get revenge!

December 29 – Sleep in, eat and play
Today was our team’s only day to sleep in, so I took full advantage of the morning. After a great breakfast in the Olympic Training Center's cafeteria, we headed to the rink for a practice session in the afternoon. After a quick skate and another fantastic meal at the training center, we headed back to the rink for our second game against Blue. We were tied after regulation and had a shootout.

Since this is an evaluation camp, the coaches decided to have a three-person shootout. Both Jessie Vetter and Megan Van Beusekom were amazing in net and forced the shootout to sudden death. In the end, Blue beat Red from a sniper shot off of Erica McKenzie's stick.

December 30 – Hard work
This morning's "light skate" was anything but. The coaches invited both teams on the ice for the morning skate and we played small games against each other all morning. Red finally won! We finished out our off-ice testing today, testing our bench press, front squat, and body fat. These numbers will be calculated and then we will get our results compared to the rest of the players here so that we can see where we rank on physical testing. Tonight our team has off, so we went to the rink to cheer on the Blue team, who lost to the Under-18 team in a shootout.

December 31 – Last full day
The Red team is fired up to play the 18 and Under team. It was exciting to watch and see the high skill level of the program. We ended up winning 4-0 on goals from Jenny Potter, Karen Thatcher, Jinelle Zaugg and Kelli Stack. They were very fast and had us running around the rink, but in the end the older girls buried the puck more. There were no new year's celebrations tonight as we had to get to bed early for our 8:45am final game.

January 1 – Happy New Year
We finished camp by beating Red in OT on a last minute goal by Erica Lawler. I had a lot of fun this camp, even though I am now the second oldest player at camp (thank you Jenny Potter for taking the pole position). The program is getting better and better every day and it is great to see the 18-year olds have the opportunity to represent the USA in a world Championship. Best of luck to head coach Katey Stone and the under 18 team!

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