Marie-Philip Poulin and Shannon Szabados, stars of Canada’s last two Olympic gold-medal teams, lead the nation’s 23-player PyeongChang roster announced Friday.
The Canadians will go for their fifth straight Olympic hockey title, which would break the consecutive golds record shared by men’s teams from Canada (1920-32) and the Soviet Union (1964-76).
The U.S. roster is scheduled to be announced New Year’s Day at the NHL Winter Classic on NBC.
Poulin, a 26-year-old often called the female Sidney Crosby, scored both goals in a 2-0 Olympic final at Vancouver 2010 and the final-minute-tying and overtime-winning goals in the 3-2 stunner in Sochi in 2014.
Szabados, also going to her third Olympics after playing in men’s minor leagues in the U.S. in 2014, 2015 and 2016, was in net for both of those Olympic finals.
For the first time, Canada will go to the Olympics without legend Hayley Wickenheiser, who retired in January after winning her fourth Olympic gold medal in Sochi.
Other four-time Olympic champions Caroline Ouellette and Jayna Hefford also retired in this Olympic cycle.
Though Canada lost all three world championship finals to the U.S. since Sochi, it won the last four games of their eight-game pre-Olympic series that wrapped up Sunday.
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MORE: Full Olympic hockey schedule
Canada Olympic women’s hockey roster Goaltenders Shannon Szabados Ann-Renée Desbiens Geneviève Lacasse
Defense Jocelyne Larocque Brigette Lacquette Lauriane Rougeau Laura Fortino Meaghan Mikkelson Renata Fast
Forwards Meghan Agosta Rebecca Johnston Laura Stacey Jennifer Wakefield Jillian Saulnier Melodie Daoust Bailey Bram Brianne Jenner Sarah Nurse Haley Irwin Natalie Spooner Emily Clark Marie-Philip Poulin Blayre Turnbull
