Team Canada faces U.S. at Rogers Place in women’s Olympic tune-up Rivalry Series

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Canadian National Women's Hockey team is playing in Edmonton, taking on Team U.S.A. in the Rivalry Series.

The puck will drop on Edmonton ice for a national women’s hockey team game Wednesday night for the first time in a decade.

That’s when Team Canada is hosting their American rivals for the first of two ‘Rivalry Series’ games at Rogers Place, warm-up matches for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy this February.

The four-game series, which saw the U.S. win the first two last month by a combined score of 10-2 in Buffalo and Cleveland, is one of the players’ last chances to impress their coaches and crack the roster.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Canadian head coach Troy Ryan said he and his staff are still trying to come up with the right combination of players.

“It’s still a mix we’re looking to improve on,” Ryan told media on Wednesday morning after his team’s morning skate ahead of the 7 p.m. game. “Obviously, we’re not satisfied with our performance in our last couple of games, but there’s still a selection process here that we’re focused on.”

Canadian players want to even the series on home ice after the 6-1 and 4-1 November losses in the U.S.

“That’s what we all dream about as little kids, playing on home soil with our Canadian fans cheering us on against the U.S.,” forward Laura Stacey said. “Obviously, that wasn’t the start of the rivalry series that we wanted, so to be able to be back here, it’s another opportunity, another chance to win some hockey games.”

Some of the fans in attendance for Tuesday’s game are coming from 20 female hockey associations from across Alberta. Watching the morning practice was an Under-18 team from Sherwood Park.

Hockey Alberta says that in the 10 years since Team Canada last played in Edmonton, about 4,000 females have taken up the game.

“We hope to see fans in the stands; little girls, little boys come in and cheer us on,” captain Marie-Philip Poulin said. “You can see it’s a movement. We’re all in this together. We keep pushing it.”

Canada opens its defence of its Olympic gold medal on Feb. 5 in Milan against Finland.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny