Not only will they play their first international games as members of Canada’s National Women’s Team, but the 22-year-old from Halifax and 21-year-old from Stellarton will also become the first Nova Scotians to do exactly that.
They’re first chances to wear the maple leaf with the senior national squad could come Nov. 3, when Canada faces off against Sweden at the Interior Savings Centre. The game airs live on TSN, with puck drop at 11 p.m. Atlantic Time.
“Growing up in the Maritimes, there were … girls that I looked up to,” Saulnier said in a recent interview. “But to know that the line (has) finally been crossed now, and I was able to make the team with Blayre, is really, really special.”
For both Saulnier and Turnbull, making the Canadian cut is the realization of a childhood dream, now coming true in Kamloops, but created while growing up playing the game back home on the east coast.
“I had this goal set for me since I was four or five,” said Saulnier, who played for the Halifax Hawks en route to eventually joining the Cornell University Big Red, where last season she was named a top-three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, recognizing the top female player in NCAA Division 1 hockey.
“It’s a pretty unbelievable feeling, to know that you can really do it,” the five-foot-five, 144-pound forward said.
Teammate Turnbull was “in shock” when she got the phone call from Hockey Canada, just before pre-game skate with the University of Wisconsin Badgers, which she captains this season.
“It didn’t really register that I had actually made the national team, but once I started telling some of my teammates and seeing their reactions, it just got really, really exciting,” the five-foot seven, 155-pound forward said.
Turnbull and Saulnier will be on the ice alongside 10 players who won the gold medal at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Hockey Canada announced Monday that two-time Olympic gold medallist Haley Irwin will captain the contingent for this year’s 4 Nations Cup, which also features Finland and the U.S., starts today and runs through Saturday.
“It’s something that I’ve been wishing for since I started playing hockey as a little girl,” Turnbull, who pursued her passion first on an outdoor pond and then at Shattuck St-Mary’s prep school, said of lacing up her skates next to her hockey heroines.
Both hope to inspire the next generation of Nova Scotia female hockey stars.
“I love going back and seeing those younger girls,” Saulnier said. “They can do it, too.”
Catch Team Canada on TV:
Tuesday, Nov. 4 – 11 p.m. AT: Canada @ Sweden (TSN/RDS)
Wednesday, Nov. 5 – 11 p.m. AT: U.S. @ Canada (TSN/RDS)
Friday, Nov. 7 – 11 p.m. AT: Canada @ Finland (TSN/RDS)
Saturday, Nov. 8 – 6 p.m. AT: Bronze medal (TSN/RDS)
Saturday, Nov. 8 – 11 p.m. AT: Gold medal (TSN/RDS)
All non-Canada games will be broadcast via FASTHockey at www.hockeycanada.ca/4nations.
