Hockey Canada Photo

 

By Scott Lowe – MYHockeyRankings.com

It’s a great time of the year to be a hockey fan in North America.

As we enter the final 10 days of the National Hockey League season with many teams still fighting for playoff spots, tonight at 7 p.m. EDT in Utica, N.Y., the United States and Canada face off at the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship in a renewal of one of the most-heated rivalries in all of sports.

This is all taking a place just a day after USA Hockey’s National Championships were decided, with more than 250 teams competing all over the U.S. for youth and girls titles at six different age levels. Meanwhile in Canada, junior, youth and provincial championship play is wrapping up, with U18 boys and girls teams competing in regional tournaments to determine which ones will advance to the Esso and TELUS Cup club national-championships later this month. 

With U.S. club national championships just having concluded and Canadian teams in the midst of navigating the road to their national championships, it’s always interesting to examine which programs are doing the best job producing the players who are competing for the U.S. and Canadian national teams. This exercise makes it easy to see why some club and college programs seem to finish at or near the top of the heap annually. 

 

A Little History Lesson

Before we dive into the team rosters, here is a quick history lesson about the rivalry between Canada and the United States at the WWC.

Canada and the United States have displayed their usual dominance at this WWC, going a combined 6-0 so far and outscoring their opponents by a 36-5 margin. Tiebreaking rules have the U.S. holding Group A’s top spot heading into the game with a goal differential of plus-12, but Canada has surrendered just one goal in outscoring its opponents by 11 thus far.

The two nations split a pair of contests at the 2023 WWC in Brampton, Ontario. Canada won the pool-play matchup, 4-3, in a shootout, but the U.S. was victorious in the game that really mattered, breaking Canada’s two-year hold on the world championship with a 6-3 victory in the gold-medal game.

Since the first WWC in 1990, the U.S. and Canada have captured all 22 gold medals, with Canada holding a 12-10 edge in titles won. The two teams have played for gold in 21 of the 22 tournaments; the United States has finished first or second in every championship, while Canada placed third in 2019 after being upset by Finland in the semifinals. 

Canada and the United States competed in their annual seven-game Rivalry Series between Nov. 8, 2023, and Feb. 11, 2024, and the Canadians rallied to win the series, 4-3, after dropping the first three contests. Two of the games required overtime or a shootout to determine a winner, but in an anomaly for a series that has featured countless one-goal decisions over the years, Canada won the last three matchups by a combined score of 13-3.

 

United States Roster Breakdown 

Below is a breakdown of where members of the United States 2024 Women’s World Championship team played prior to earning a spot on the Team USA roster. Keep in mind that players may have played for more than one club team or college, so the number of previous teams will not be equal to the number of players on the team.

Also, USA veteran Hayley Scamurra, daughter of former NHL player Peter Scamurra, played junior hockey in Canada before enrolling at Northeastern University, where she competed for four years prior to playing in the National Women’s Hockey League, on the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association Dream Gap Tour and ultimately in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

In addition to Scamurra, a forward, 10 other Team USA players currently are playing in the PWHL: forwards Taylor Heise, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Hilary Knight, Grace Zumwinkle and Kelly Pannek; defenders Savannah Harmon and Megan Keller; and goalies Aerin Frankel and Nicole Hensley.

Some players, such as forward Lacey Eden, also played for boys’ teams when they were younger, but that generally was before their 19U and 16U years. Eden played for the Washington Little Caps AAA program before moving on to Pens Elite and ultimately Shattuck-St. Mary’s.

Here is a look at which programs produced the players on the Team USA 2024 WWC roster:

USA Club and High School Hockey

Minnesota High School – 4

Bishop Kearney Selects – 4

Shattuck-St. Mary’s – 4

Chicago Mission – 3

New England Prep – 3

East Coast Wizards – 2

Pittsburgh Penguins Elite – 2

Colorado Selects – 1

Little Caesars – 1

HoneyBaked – 1

Connecticut Polar Bears – 1

North American Hockey Academy – 1

St. Louis Lady Blues – 1

Victory Honda – 1

Team Illinois – 1

National Sports Academy – 1

Boston Shamrocks – 1

  

USA NCAA Division I Colleges

Wisconsin – 7

Minnesota – 4

Northeastern – 4

Ohio State – 4

Boston College – 3

Clarkson – 2

Cornell – 1

Lindenwood – 1

Colgate – 1

 

Canadian Junior Hockey

Oakville Hornets – 1

Burlington Barracudas – 1

 

CLICK HERE for the complete Team USA WWC 2024 roster

 

Interestingly for Team Canada, every player on the roster played NCAA hockey in the U.S. or currently is playing at that level. One player, Blayre Turnbull, played for USA powerhouse Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota before college, while 19 team members currently are playing in the PWHL. 

Below is a look at where players on the Canadian 2024 WWC roster played before earning a spot on the national team. Again, keep in mind that players often move from team to team, so the number of players in each category may not equal the number on the Team Canada roster.

 

Canadian Club, Junior and Prep Hockey

Oakville Hornets – 3

Stoney Creek Sabres – 3

Westman Wildcats – 3

Toronto Aeros – 2

Burlington Barracudas – 2

Etobicoke Dolphins – 1

Aurora Panthers – 1

Durham West Lightning – 1

Saskatoon Stars – 1

Okanagan Hockey Academy – 1

Dawson College Blues – 1

Ottawa Lady Senators – 1

Edmonton Pandas – 1

Beauce-Amiante Elites – 1

Pursuit of Excellence – 1

Calgary Oval X-Treme – 1

London Devilettes – 2

Quebec Typhon – 1

Beaubourg Seigneurs – 1

Fort Saskatchewan Rangers – 1

Lloydminster Bobcats – 1

Shaftesbury School – 1

 

United States Club Hockey

Shattuck-St. Mary’s -1

 

USA NCAA Division I Colleges

Wisconsin – 5

Clarkson - 5

Cornell – 3

Ohio State – 2

Minnesota-Duluth – 1

Dartmouth – 1

Princeton – 1

Colgate – 1

Harvard – 1

St. Lawrence – 1

Boston University – 1

North Dakota – 1

 

CLICK HERE for the complete Team Canada WWC 2024 roster