Jade Downie-Landry sole U Sports player on Canada’s Nations Cup roster

It marks the 21-year-old McGill rookie’s first major tournament with Hockey Canada.

McGill University forward Jade Downie-Landry has been named to Team Canada’s roster for the 2017 Nations Cup, hosted in Füssen, Germany and Telfs, Austria from Jan. 4-7, Hockey Canada announced on Wednesday.

The tournament will once again feature Canada’s National Women’s Development Team, which will compete against senior squads from Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland. Canada will prepare with a pre-tournament game against Germany on Jan. 2, before taking on the Czech Republic, Sweden, and the host Germans in group play, all in Füssen. Both medal games will also be played in the German city, while Austria hosts the second group of teams along with the fifth- and seventh-place contests.

It will be the first major tournament for Downie-Landry as part of the national team. The Martlets freshman did not compete for Canada at the U18 level, and made her debut in the maple leaf this August during a development series against Team USA, where she recorded one goal and one assist in three games. She was invited to Hockey Canada’s annual strength and conditioning camp in 2015, but was not named to any rosters.

Downie-Landry has five goals and one assist in seven RSEQ games this season, and a 9-8-17 record in 19 total contests with McGill.

Also named to the Nations Cup team was Katelyn Gosling, who played five years of CIS hockey with the Western Mustangs before joining the CWHL’s Calgary Inferno this season.

Canada’s roster features 11 players from the NCAA, 10 from the CWHL, and one from CÉGEP, in addition to Downie-Landry, the sole U Sports/CIS representative on the team.