Five former Cornell women’s hockey players have been invited to represent their home country of Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, Team Canada announced Friday.
Featured on the four-time defending gold medal team’s 23-player roster for 2018 are Cornellians Rebecca Johnston ’12, Laura Fortino ’13, Lauriane Rougeau ’13, Brianne Jenner ’15 and Jillian Saulnier ’15.
All five players were teammates on the 2011-2012 Cornell team, which took a 30-5 season all the way to the national semifinals, ultimately losing to eventual-champion Minnesota.
One Cornellian, Micah Zandee-Hart ’20, missed the final Olympic team after originally being named to the Canadian roster this past summer as one of its youngest members.
Meet Team Canada 🇨🇦 #PyeongChang2018
Roster: https://t.co/BVHvvc0imG pic.twitter.com/Cc3FvRixfO
— Team Canada Women (@HC_Women) December 22, 2017
For Johnston, the stage will be far from unfamiliar. The 28-year-old forward will be experiencing her third winter games, which includes gold medals with Canada in 2010 and 2014. While a member of the Red, Johnston earned Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors in 2007-08 and enjoyed selections to the All-Ivy and All-ECAC teams in each of her four seasons. Johnston finished three seasons as a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the top female player in collegiate hockey. Johnston holds several school records, including shots on goal (673) and shots per game (5.7).
As a freshman, Fortino was the top-scoring defenseman in the NCAA and eventually finished as a three-time All-American. The first overall pick in the 2014 Canadian Women’s Hockey League draft, Fortino has earned professional success akin to that which she enjoyed in college as a scoring defenseman.
Rougeau is a former Cornell captain who also earned the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award and helped lead Cornell to three Frozen Four appearances in her tenure. She was recognized as the ECAC’s best defensive defenseman three times, and also earned four first-team All-ECAC selections.
Jenner is a two-time Ivy League Player of the Year who holds school records in game-winning goals and assists. She was second in the NCAA in scoring as a freshman, a feat that helped her earn Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors.
Saulnier, playing in her first Olympics, earned ECAC Rookie of the Year honors along with being named a first-team All-American and a top-three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award in the 2013-2014 season.
These five players played at Cornell together for only one season, but they helped define an era of success for the women’s hockey program. Now, as teammates in a jersey of a different shade of red and white, they will look to help continue an era of success for the Canadian national team.