USA Women’s Hockey Team Arrives at Turning Stone Hotel

The United States Olympic Women's Hockey Team arrived at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona on Monday night ahead of the IIHF Women's World Championship starting Wednesday in Utica. The event will run April 3 through April 14.

Team USA will help open the tournament on Wednesday with a 7 PM game vs. Switzerland at the Aud, which will be broadcast over the NHL Network worldwide. Earlier in the day on Wednesday, Denmark will face Sweden at 11:00 AM, and Finland will face Czechia at 3 PM. In a preliminary game on Saturday, Team USA defeated Czechia 6-1 in Lake Placid. Team USA is the defending world champion.

A group of reporters and photographers were patiently waiting for Team USA's arrival in the lobby of the Tower Hotel at the Turning Stone late Monday afternoon.

Forward Laila Edwards removes luggage from the bus as she checks in at the Tower Hotel in Verona, before Wednesday's first round game. Edwards is from University of Wisconsin.

Cayla Barnes of Ohio State University is from Eastvale, California.

The city welcomed the team with open arms, with media greeting the team upon arrival at the hotel. The greater Utica area also created hype with local children, distributing 13,000 activity books with games and information about all ten teams competing to 55 schools in the Oneida, Herkimer and Madison Counties. Additionally, 7,000 of those Utica-area elementary school students attending games throughout the tournament. - IIHF

In conjunction with the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship, in Utica, athletes from U12 through the collegiate level are invited to attend the Women in Sport Summit, Friday, April 5, at 10 a.m. The free summit will be held in the Harold T. Clark Athletic Center on the Campus of Utica University.

The Women in Sport Summit will feature an impressive group of panelists who will discuss strength & conditioning, nutrition, health & wellness and equity. The Summit will also feature a viewing of the documentary, “Keepers of the Game,” based on the Salmon River High School girls’ lacrosse program, directed by Judd Ehrlich.

Rory Guilday, of Minnetonka, Minnesota talks with teammates during check-in at the hotel on Monday. Guilday is from Cornell University.