Les Canadiennes skate into Place Bell

Les Canadiennes announced on Thursday that the Canadian Women’s Hockey League club will move to Place Bell for the 2018-19 season.

The facility in Laval will host Les Canadiennes’ daily operations and training sessions, as well as the majority of their home games.

For their opening weekend, Les Canadiennes will play the Calgary Inferno on Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Aréna du Rocket as part of an exciting doubleheader with the Laval Rocket, the Montreal Canadiens’ American Hockey League farm team, who will play the Binghamton Devils at 3 p.m.

Les Canadiennes will play a second game on Place Bell’s Community Rink on Oct. 14 at 1 p.m.

“We are excited to play at Place Bell this season, a beautiful new facility,” Les Canadiennes star forward Marie-Philip Poulin said in a release.

“I’m happy to be back with Les Canadiennes and have another opportunity

I’m happy to be back with Les Canadiennes and have another opportunity to bring home the Clarkson Cup to Montreal.

to bring home the Clarkson Cup to Montreal,” said star forward Marie-Philip Poulin.

Les Canadiennes’ training camp began on Sept. 18 and will conclude on Sept. 28. The team was swept by the Markham Thunder in the Clarkson Cup semifinals last season, a year after capturing the CWHL championship.

Poulin will return to the lineup this season and will be joined by Team Canada’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics MVP Mélodie Daoust, who will be making her CWHL debut.

Team USA star Hilary Knight, who joined Les Canadiennes for the last game of the regular season and the playoffs, promises to add further firepower. Knight won gold in Pyeongchang with the U.S. team.

Ann-Sophie Bettez, a finalist for CWHL MVP last season, Katia Clement Heydra, Karell Émard and Melanie Desrochers will be among the returning players.

During the off-season, Montreal added two Olympic medallists in speedy forward Jillian Saulnier and veteran goaltender Geneviève Lacasse, both acquired from the Calgary Inferno.