Surrey Jennifer Gardiner will again wear the maple leaf for international matches, a few months after winning a national championship with his university team.
After an 11-day selection camp, Cloverdale-raised Gardiner was among 23 players named to Canada’s National Women’s Development Team for a three-game series against the United States this week in Calgary.
Gardiner, born in 2001, a five-foot-six forward, won a national championship with the Ohio State Buckeyes in March after playing for the Greater Vancouver Comets of the BC Female Major Midget League (now BCEHL U18 Female) and, before that, the Surrey Falcons.
Hockey Canada’s selection camp brought together 142 players from the national development team and the U18 team, also in action against an American team this week.
On hockeycanada.caGardiner’s biography lists national team stats since 2018. The list of the development team is also published, which includes Langley’s Sara Swiderski in defense and Aldergrove striker Amy Potomak. Canada’s U18 team includes Jordan Baxter, a New Westminster-born forward with Delta Hockey Academy.
In January 2019, Gardiner was among the golden girls for Team Canada after winning the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s U18 World Championships in Japan. Gardiner played four games for Canada in the championship tournament. She didn’t score a point, but did score two goals in two preseason games.
Gardiner graduated from Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School. At the age of two, she started skating and soon became involved in hockey, following in her older brother’s footsteps.
“She tried figure skating, but there was no way she could wear those skates,” her mother, Diane, said in 2018. “She took lessons, but she always wanted to wear hockey skates.”
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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