Davis rejoins Canada’s golden quest
Forward from Paradise named to Canada’s women’s world team for a third straight year
Sarah Davis will have a role on the world stage for a third straight year.
The 24-year-old winger from Paradise has been named to what will be veteran roster for Canada as it looks to return to gold-medal status at the 2017 women’s world hockey championship beginning at the end of the month.
Davis was part of the Canadian team that had to settle for silver at the 2015 world championship in Sweden and the last year’s tournament in British Columbia. In both cases, Canada lost to the United States in the final.
In fact, since winning a gold medal with Canada’s women’s development team at the 2015 Nations Cup, Davis’s nationalteam experience has produced a stream of silver — including the 2015 and 2016 4 Nations Cup and at the 2017 Nations Cup in Germany earlier this year.
If the Canadians are to knock off the U.S., they will have to do it on the Americans’ home ice as this year’s event is being held in Plymouth, Mich., starting March 31. And they will have to do it without longtime Canadian star Hayley Wickenheiser, who announced her retirement in January. Wickenheiser helped Canada win 13 world championship medals, including seven gold.
A product of the University of Minnesota, winning an NCAA championship with that school in 2012, Davis has been playing with the Canadian Women’s Hockey League’s Calgary Inferno since being drafted third overall by that team in the 2014 CWHL draft.
She’s been part of Canada’s national women’s program since attending an under-19 evaluation camp in 2007.
——— Teddy Purcell of St. John’s is making progress in his efforts to return to action for the American Hockey League’s Ontario Reign.
Purcell hasn’t played for the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL farm team since being injured in practice about a month ago.
“Hopefully soon,” Purcell told Jon Rosen of the LA Kings Insider earlier this week after skating in a Reign practice in a non-contact jersey.
“It’s never fun when you’re out. I’ve been fortunate over my career to not miss a whole bunch of time. Sitting out the last three weeks or month is slow. Makes the days go by slower, but I’m starting to get my legs under me.”
Another Newfoundlander in the AHL, defenceman Adam Pardy of Bonavista, has been sidelined by injury even longer than Purcell.
Pardy hasn’t played for the Milwaukee Admirals since Jan. 18 as he recovers from a broken left arm.
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Here are some other notes on players who can be found in our Newfoundlanders Away listing:
The AHL’S Utica Comets seem to have Alex Wall’s number on speed dial. For the second-time this season, the Comets brought in the defenceman for a singlegame call-up. Wall played for Utica — whose roster had been hit by call-ups in response to the mumps breakout on the parent Vancouver Canucks — in Feb. 25 game against the Binghmaton Senators before being returned to the ECHL’S Adirondack Thunder … Forward Jordan King of the Corner Brook had the best week of any Newfoundlander on our lists, with four goals and five assists in two games for the Maritime Hockey League’s Amherst Ramblers … The best single game of the week by a player on the list came from centre Nathan Noel of the QMJHL’S Saint John Sea Dogs., who had three goals, two assists and a plus-four rating in an 8-7 overtime loss to the Acadie-bathurst Titan last Thursday … Kenny Neil of Clarenville, a forward with the Oswego State Lakers, has been named to the State University of New York Athletic Conference’s 2016-17 first all-star team … A number of university-level players have dropped off the Newfoundlanders Away list as their seasons have ended. They include Matthew Kennedy of Mount Pearl, Martin Lavalee of Happy Valley-goose Bay and
Matthew Downer of St. John’s, all playing at the American collegiate level; Cody Drover of Grand Falls-windsor and the University of Ottawa Geegees; and Atlantic University Sports players Marcus Power and
Kurt Etchegary, both of St. John’s and UPEI, and Heather Richards of St. Anthony and the Mount Allison Mounties …