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Under-18 Women's Select Team Leaning on Experience Heading into Series Against Canada

By Heather Rule, 08/17/22, 7:00AM EDT

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Seven of the 24 players won a silver medal at the 2022 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship

Josie St. Martin, a forward from Stillwater, Minnesota, finds herself representing the United States for the second time following an appearance at the U18 Women’s World Championship this past June. She was excited to be named to the U.S. U18 Women’s Select Team and travel to Canada for a three-game series that begins today and runs through August 20.

“It’s always fun to travel with teammates,” St. Martin said. “Just because of last summer, most of this stuff was where I lived, so I didn’t get to travel much. … But with this group, it’s always fun.”

St. Martin is one of seven players who recently played for the U.S. U18 Women’s National Team in June. Joining her are goaltender Annelies Bergmann (Detroit, Michigan), forward Cassie Hall (South Lyon, Michigan), defender Molly Jordan (Berlin, Connecticut), forward Maggie Scannell (Wynantskill, New York), forward Finley McCarthy (Whitefish, Montana) and fellow Minnesotan, forward Ava Lindsay (Wayzata, Minnesota).

The group won silver medals at the 2022 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship, losing 3-2 to Canada in the gold-medal game in Madison, Wisconsin. St. Martin scored a pair of goals in those five games.

In net, Bergmann, who went 3-0-0-1 with a 1.51 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in the championship, will be joined by Minnetonka High School’s Layla Hemp (Chanhassen, Minn.). Danielle Strom (Dayton, Minnesota) was selected to the team but is unable to attend the series in Calgary.

“We have a really good group of girls,” St. Martin said. “We’re all super excited. And warm-ups are always super fun. We always get rowdy and excited during warm-ups, and I think we just have an awesome group.”

Other Minnesotans on the roster include defensemen Elly Klepinger (Corcoran, Minnesota), Cailin Mumm (Andover, Minnesota), and forwards Lindzi Avar (Chanhassen, Minnesota) and Grace Sadura (Chanhassen, Minnesota). Klepinger, Avar and Sadura are all from the Minnetonka High School program.

The rest of the defensive unit includes Kamdyn Davis (Beloit, Wisconsin), Rose Dwyer (Wynnewood, Pennsylvania), Gabby Kim (Los Angeles) and Rosie Klein (Chicago). The remaning forwards are Peyton Compton (Sanford, Florida), Lucia DiGirolamo (Woburn, Massachusetts), Annabella Fanale (Webster, New York), Alexandra Lalonde (Irvine, California), Samantha Taber (Tewksbury, Massachusetts) and Ava Thomas (Dowington, Pennsylvania).

Forward Joy Dunne (O’Fallon, Missouri) was selected to the team but is unable to attend the series in Calgary.

“Everyone’s equal here, and again, we all have a role on the team. We’re just trying to figure that out and get used to everyone,” St. Martin said.

Katie Lachapelle, of Lewiston, Maine, is the head coach for this year’s series and was also named as the U.S. U18 Women’s National Team head coach after leading the team at the world championship in June. She served as an assistant coach for the U18 Women’s National Program for four seasons from 2013-17 before becoming an assistant coach with the U.S. Women’s National Under-22 Select team in 2018 and 2019.

“We have a really competitive group of girls,” St. Martin said. “We were super physical on the ice, but then when we were off the ice, we were all friends, so that was really nice.

“We all love each other already. So I think we’re going to have a great time.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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Hayley Scamurra, in the USA Hockey navy jersey, moves the puck along the boards with a Canada opponent right at her back